Burundi: Anésie, surviving a family tragedy

There were numerous allegations of beatings and other serious human rights violations, including enforced disappearances and rape.

One of the victims was Anésie’s father. A member of an opposition party, he was abducted and killed at the start of the demonstrations. A few weeks later, three policemen abducted the teenager on her way back from high school. Led by a high-ranking police officer, they transported her in a car to an unknown destination. Before she was sedated and gang raped, she recognized among them the same man who she believes to have been behind her father’s death. She remembers that the policemen discussed killing her and that she owes her life to the insistence of one of them that she be released.

When doctors later told her that she was pregnant, Anésie tried to commit suicide by taking poison. Her family sent her and her mother – also a rape victim - abroad, for their own security. For lack of money, Anésie had to abandon her studies and work to support her three-year-old daughter.

She accepted to share her story, saying she hoped to “get justice and that my tormentors are punished.” So that the cycle of violence can be broken.
*Not her real name

Learn more about rape survivors in Burundi:

• A cry for justice from rape survivors
• Burundi: Delia, raped as a form of punishment
• Burundi: Men too are targets of sexual violence
• Natalie, how to recover a sense of dignity