Disappearances blamed on the police deepen fear in Burundi
KAMPALA- When security officials in Burundi show up looking for someone, they don't even have to produce an arrest warrant. And when they take a suspect away, the terrified family members left behind just hope their relative will be held at a known jail.
That's because unofficial cells have reportedly become death chambers in the months since President Pierre Nkurunziza won a disputed third term.
Amid the violence, in which more than 400 people have been killed since last April, an online network of Burundian activists is trying to bring international attention to what it says are rising incidents of people being disappeared by local police and intelligence agents, some of whom then return to extort huge sums of money from families desperate to get their loved ones back.
