Marc Niyonkuru

Burundi, CAHR, Autumn 2016

"Be helpful to people and the community will gain due to you", Marc Niyonkuru's father liked to tell his children when Marc was young. Because of the crisis which was taking place in Burundi, Marc's father advised us to be visionary and prevent conflict. For him, a contradictory debate on public questions should help Burundians to understand each other and help them find solutions to the crisis. Nine years ago, Marc Niyonkuru started promoting and protecting human rights in Burundi. The job of a journalist is wonderful but also dangerous.

Marc Niyonkuru is 39 years old and father of 3 children. He has a degree in French literature and a Master in Journalism from the University of Burundi. His background can't be separated from the political context of his country. He was one of the 27 students who created two organizations in Burundi in 2002. 13 Hutus and 14 Tutsis decided to get together and talk without hiding anything about the reasons of the crisis in Burundi. In this period, it was not easy for Hutus and the Tutsis to sit together and debate publicly on such questions.

And why? Two pro-Hutu rebels movements were fighting against the government. Many people were killed because of their ethnicity. Marc Niyonkuru and his friends called intellectuals and students to debate on the crisis which was taking place in his country even if it was difficult. Due to this organization, students and lectures were invited for talks depending on their experiences or specialities. They learnt from some leaders and their political philosophies, some periods of time and their impact on African countries: Nelson Mandela, Jomo Kenyatta, Mahatma Gandhi, perestroika, American and French revolutions… This organization was called Forum pour la Conscience et le Development and it is a local NGO. This organization created a secondary school called Lycee de l’espoir (School of hope) in which they taught for 3 years without being paid. From 2005 to 2008, Marc Niyonkuru was a French teacher in Bujumbura capital. He incited students to reading with his book club. Every semester his club organized an event about books read by students with the help French embassy in Burundi. "One of the biggest challenges for human rights in Burundi is education," Marc Niyonkuru says.

One of the biggest challenges for human rights in Burundi is education.

In 2004, due to the crisis in Burundi, he helped journalists to know what are the words which incite people to violence. He published a semiotic of common words used by radios and newspapers which incited people to violence between 1993 to 1998 by media such as the Radio Mille Collines in Rwanda. He also conducted research on political interferences in cases detention and imprisonment of journalists in order to prove how journalists in Burundi are not free to do their job.

In September 2008, he began the job of a journalist in the south the country for Isanganiro Radio. Marc Niyonkuru reported on torture against members of the political opposition; on injustice in sharing fields among people; and corruption. The authorities and policemen became angry at him and planned many times to kill him. In May 2010, Marc Niyonkuru fled his region for 3 months after his report about distribution of guns among a para-military movement called Imbonerakure was published. When he returned, his house had been attacked twice by this para-military movement. He left this region with his family after a failed attack. The local UN mission was informed about a plan of killing him. The UN sent guards to his house the night before the planned attack, while Marc was staying elsewhere. Many cases of human rights violations abuses planned by the government failed due to Marc Niyonkuru when he was working in the south of the country (for example, cases of extrajudicial killings and torture).

Since 2012, Marc Niyonkuru has been in Bujumbura for working as a website journalist and investigator of the same radio Isanganiro. He has especially focused on investigating the problems relating to access and right to cultivated land; and the reduction of political space for opposition political parties. At the same time, Marc Niyonkuru has been a freelancer at Afrique actualité, Syfia Grands Lacs, Nowadays D+C magazine and Dignité de la femme, a local magazine for women’s rights. He worked also for Reseau des Citoyens Probes, another Burundian civil society organization which he was creator of together with other students at the University of Burundi.

Now Marc Niyonkuru is based in Rwanda where he continues to work as a freelancer in international media. He contributes particularly to Nowadays D+C magazine, Afrique actualité and Inzamba. "Do your best, be helpful and you will contribute to changing the world," Marc says.