Tanzania’s police are torturing refugees from Burundi

EVEN AFTER Tanzanian policemen had hung him from the ceiling and beaten him with sticks, Crispin (not his real name) would not confess to being a rebel leader with plans to overthrow the government of neighbouring Burundi. It was only when they injected a liquid into his testicles that he caved in and said he was plotting a coup.

He was not. Some years ago Crispin was photographed at an anti-government protest in Burundi. Thugs from the ruling party’s youth wing, the Imbonerakure (“those who see far”), painted a red cross on his door and turned up one night to threaten him. So in 2016 he fled to a refugee camp in western Tanzania. But men from the Imbonerakure also stalk the camps with lists of dissidents provided by Burundian intelligence. They target them, allegedly with help from Tanzanian police. Desperate families often pay the Imbonerakure to have their relatives freed. The spoils are shared with local cops. Most of those picked up are accused of hoarding weapons or plotting against Burundi’s government.

In December last year men from the Imbonerakure turned up at Crispin’s shelter flanked by Tanzanian policemen. They bundled him into a police car and took him to a cell where he spent three months. He was released only...