Jérémie Nyomvyi, a 45-year-old man from Rwandagara hill in Bugenyuzi commune, Karuzi province, has been sentenced to seven years in prison and fined seven million Burundian francs for human trafficking. Should he fail to pay the fine, he will face an additional 35 years in prison. The Supreme Court in Rutana delivered the verdict during a public trial on Wednesday afternoon.
Nyomvyi was convicted of trafficking seven children aged between 13 and 17, whom he transported to Tanzania. Four of the children were from Bugenyuzi commune in Karusi Province in eastern Burundi, while the remaining three were from Gitwenzi hill in Ruhororo commune, Ngozi Province in the north.
During the trial, Nyomvyi admitted to the charges and confessed to paying individuals who supplied him with the children. He revealed that the children were taken to work on farms in neighboring Tanzania, where he negotiated their wages.
In a statement on Thursday, the Collective of Associations for the Defense of Children’s Rights in Burundi (FENADEB) commended the court’s decision, emphasizing the importance of justice in combating child trafficking. “This verdict sends a strong message against the trafficking of minors,” FENADEB said in a post on X (formerly Twitter), adding that it had provided legal and care services to the rescued children.
This case is the latest in a series of child trafficking incidents in Burundi, where minors are often smuggled to Tanzania and subjected to exploitative labor.
In December 2024, the Rutana High Court sentenced two men from Makamba province for trafficking minors to Tanzania. One man received a five-year prison sentence, while the other was sentenced to three years for complicity.
In another December case, a court in Rutana sentenced 22-year-old Jean Paul Ndayishimiye to five years of forced labor and fined him 500,000 Burundian francs for trafficking minors. Ndayishimiye, from Bukinga hill in Gitaramuka commune, Karusi province, was arrested with four children aged between 13 and 14. He later admitted that he had been hired by a Tanzanian national who promised him 5,000 Tanzanian shillings per child delivered.
Civil society organizations, including FENADEB, have repeatedly raised alarms about the growing prevalence of child trafficking in Burundi. These organizations report that trafficked children are often subjected to degrading treatment and exploitative conditions upon arrival in neighboring Tanzania.
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