Our President: One of the world leaders who can save Burundi

I listened to a news report on BBC World Service’s News Hour programme on Tuesday and was horrified by what was being reported regarding the brutality the dictatorial regime of Pierre Nkurunziza is visiting on harmless citizens of that country in the name of fighting dissidents.

It was reported that people are disappearing mysteriously at night and their bodies found by the roadside or at river banks the next morning.

One victim narrated how a plastic bag filled with sand was tied to his testicles for several hours as a confession was extracted from him by security agents even as he pleaded his innocence.

Another was made to sit in a basin with acid in it and now his posterior is full of sores and blisters, and he can hardly sit down.

Women interviewed narrated how they have lost their husbands, sons and brothers in this way.

As I pondered the reported incidents, it occurred to me that the Rwanda genocide started in a similar fashion, with the world taking the situation causally until it was too late.

The world ought to take what is happening in Burundi very seriously to prevent a possible genocide.