No need to search for information on the Burundian presidential election on Facebook, Twitter or WhatsApp, social networks have been cut since the opening of polling stations on Wednesday, May 20, 2020. The data collected by NetBlocks and cross-checked by information obtained by RSF undoubtedly report a targeted internet cut-off despite the denial published by Willy Nyamitwe, the ambassador and adviser of the Burundian president Pierre Nkurunziza who had described this interruption as “rumor”.
On December 30, the public prosecutor requested 15 years in prison against the journalists. The trial had however largely established that the reporters, arrested on October 22, 2019 while trying to cover the attack on a group of rebels, had no connection with the assailants