The Burundi government arrested six people on Saturday in connection with the murder of the country’s water, environment and planning minister, Emmanuel Niyonkuru, who was shot [BBC News report] in the head shortly after midnight on New Year’s Eve. While the motive for the killing remains undetermined, police are currently calling the killing [AFP report] an “assassination.” Many senior figures have been targeted since President Pierre Nkurunziza [BBC profile] announced his bid to run for a third term in 2015. General Adolphe Nshimirimana, a close aide to Nkurunziza, was killed in August 2015. Almost a year later former government minister and spokeswoman Hafsa Mossi was killed by gunmen in her car. There have also been other failed attacks, and Burundi has accused Rwanda for all of the attacks. Prosecutor General Sylvestre Nyandwi stated that the Niyonkuru murder investigation is still ongoing and refused to reveal the identities of the accused or their alleged motives.

Violence in Burundi began in the wake of Nkurunziza’s announcement that he would seek a third term of office, to which he was elected [JURIST report] in July 2015. Burundi has been the object of much international scrutiny over potential human rights abuses ever since. In November the former UN Human Rights Council President Choi Kyonglim [official profile], announced [JURIST report] that the UN commission investigating human rights violations in Burundi is to be staffed by Fatsah Ouguergouz of Algeria, Reina Alapini Gansu of Benin and Francoise Hampson [official profiles] of the UK. Earlier the same month, the International Federation of Human Rights urged the UN [JURIST report] and African Union to intervene and stop an impending genocide in Burundi. In October, Burundi withdrew [JURIST report] from the International Criminal Court amid an investigation into human rights abuses. In September, the UN Independent Investigation in Burundi expressed their grave concern [JURIST report] about the current human rights situation in Burundi.