Burundi: FFB general secretary arrested by intelligence services
Jérémie Manirakiza, general secretary of the Burundi Football Federation, was detained at Bujumbura airport
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After an international break that was encouraging on the pitch, with an undeserved defeat to Ivory Coast (0-1) and a comfortable win over Seychelles (5-0), the Burundi delegation left Morocco, host nation for the matches, to return home.
But at Bujumbura airport, Burundian intelligence service agents promptly detained Jérémie Manirakiza, the FFB general secretary, in front of the astonished federation president, Alexandre Muyenge, who is himself a brigadier general in the police.
Messages in a WhatsApp group
According to our information, Manirakiza's arrest is linked to messages from a WhatsApp group in which he is alleged to have voiced support for M23, the Rwanda-backed armed group active in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, which recently seized the cities of Goma and Bukavu in the Kivu provinces.
Read also: Congolese sportspeople rally behind the FARDC
More than just support, the FFB general secretary reportedly wished for M23 to do the same in Burundi to drive out the country's president, Evariste Ndayishimiye. While it is still impossible to know who passed on the messages in question, two other members of the same group have also been arrested.
Federation silent
With the situation still unclear, Jérémie Manirakiza is reportedly still being held in an intelligence services cell. When contacted, the federation did not respond to our requests, nor did the FFB president. No statement has been issued, but an interim general secretary (Elysé Niyubahwé) is now in charge of official correspondence.
Such silence is hardly surprising in a country openly fighting M23 in the east of the DRC. As a reminder, head of state Ndayishimiye also told the BBC that "the Rwandan president had a plan to attack Burundi".