Joséphine Mpfukamensabe, Vestine Muhawenimana and Alphonsine Niyonsenga, three young girls from the same family aged 22, 18 and 15 respectively have been beaten by Fébronie Niyingabire, Administrator of Bwambarangwe Commune in Kirundo Province in the north of Burundi on 2 September.
Joséphine Mpfukamensabe lying on her hospital bed
It was around 2:00 p.m. in front of Bwambarangwe Communal office. They had responded to a summons by the communal administrator stating that they had a dispute with the municipality.
They were received in the office of the communal administrator. “Without asking us anything, Fébronie Niyingabire began to slap us. She took us out of her office and told us to lie on the ground outside,” said one of the three girls.
The victims said the administrator beat them with a big stick. “She hit us on the buttocks but Josephine was beaten on her back,” one of them says. They also say the administrator ordered them to wait for her when she went out saying “she had not finished yet”.
The girls however took their sister to a nearby health center as she was in a very critical condition. Fébronie Niyingabire didn’t return.
Jacqueline Kanyange, their mother, says all she wants is that her daughter be treated and that justice does its job. Mrs. Kanyange says the communal police commissioner came to visit her daughter hospitalized in the evening and said he was following the case closely.
Contacted, Fébronie Niyingabire did not react on the allegations against her. Mrs. Kanyange says her children would be political victims.
“For the last two weeks, they have been doing dance rehearsals preparing for the opening ceremonies of the CNL party office,” she says, adding that they have been supporters of the CNL party chairman since the time they were in Rukore refugee camp in Tanzania.
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