Burundi doctors imprisoned for quitting over low pay

Nairobi – Five doctors in Burundi have been imprisoned by the intelligence service after quitting their jobs over the failure of salary negotiations, union and government sources told AFP on Tuesday.

The doctors were arrested by the intelligence service between December 27 and January 31, accused of “undermining the internal security of the state”, according to a manager of the Burundi General Practitioners’ Union.

Like other interviewees, he requested anonymity for fear of the harsh treatment of government critics in Burundi, a small country in the Great Lakes region of Africa scarred by poverty, political violence and a long civil war.

The doctors “were detained without an arrest warrant and have been imprisoned since then in the dungeons of the SNR (National Intelligence Service)”, the union source said.

Four other doctors have been threatened, receiving “intimidating messages that have terrorised them”, he added.

The imprisoned doctors all worked as general practitioners in public hospitals, but also had positions at private facilities that are largely controlled by members of the ruling CNDD-FDD party.

“Faced with the refusal to satisfy our demands… all the doctors saw fit to resign from these facilities while continuing to provide services in public hospitals, and it is since then that the hunt for doctors has begun,” said the union source.

The incarcerations were confirmed by a senior official in the health ministry and a security source, also on condition of anonymity.

The security source told AFP the arrested doctors had “endangered the lives of Burundian citizens through their actions. Some may have died because of them.”

The problem began in November, when some doctors at private facilities demanded a fourfold increase in their monthly pay, which stood at 500,000 Burundian Francs (around $170), he said.

A government that “pays a pittance” and “harshly represses doctors demanding their rights” should not be surprised “if tomorrow it finds that all the doctors have gone into exile to go work where they are treated with dignity”, a doctor told AFP.

“If a solution is not found, all general practitioners will suspend their activities,” he warned, calling for an end to intimidation and the release of his colleagues.

Burundi saw an exodus of doctors during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 over low pay, the country’s then-health minister Sylvie Nzeyimana acknowledged to parliament in October 2023.

She put the figure at 130 departures across 80 hospitals.