At least 3 000 Burundi and Congolese (DRC) nationals detained in the gendarmerie station of Gatumba, Rural Bujumbura province, are at risk of ill-treatment or torture. As many a eight people, including seven children, are reported to have died in custody from suffocation, shortly after their arrests. According to officials, the arrests are to facilitate identity checks by the civilian and military authorities to counter an increase in attacks by armed opposition groups and armed robberies in the area.
