Supreme Court in Burundi has sentenced the former Chairman of President Pierre Nkurunziza's ruling Forces for the Defence of Democracy [FDD] to 13 years behind bars. Hussein Radjabu had been found guilty of attempting to “recruit former rebels with the aim of destabilising the state" and insulting President Nkurunziza, referring to him as an "empty bottle."

The number of Burundians that have returned to their homeland from neighbouring Tanzania with the help of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reached the 300,000 mark last month, the agency has reported. In addition, tens of thousands of Burundian refugees have also returned home on their own – mainly from villages in the north-western Tanzania – bringing the total number of returnees to 389,000.

The UN refugee agency's introduction last August of cash grants for Burundian returnees appears to have both encouraged more people to go back home and eased their reintegration. In the months since the 50,000 Burundian Francs (about US$45) grant per person was introduced for Burundians in Tanzania, some 35,000 refugees have returned to their country.

In Burundi, land is a source of power. Many members of the Batwa pygmy community blame their subordinate status on the fact that they do not own property. Having once enjoyed a symbiotic relationship with the rainforest environment, most Batwa today have been squeezed out of their hunter-gatherer existence and work as casual labourers on other people’s land.

On 1st February 2008, as its 40th session came to an end, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) adopted its concluding observations, having examined the combined second, third and fourth periodic report of Burundi regarding the implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women.