28 March 2025
By Christella Niyonzima, David Taylor and Isabelle Simbarakiye
In the aftermath of a 15-year long civil war, Burundi prioritised institutional reforms above other transitional justice provisions contained in the Arusha Agreement and ceasefire accords. Among them, the demobilisation, disarmament, reintegration, and reinsertion (DDRR) process was established in 2004. Aimed at contributing to security and stability in a post-war context, this process enabled certain combatants from the regular army and armed rebel groups to integrate the National Defence Force (FDN) and National Police, facilitating the return to civilian life for others.
Twenty years later, questions are being asked about the impact of this process on the lives of those who participated, their families, and their communities. Between 2023-2024, we conducted research on this subject in four provinces of Burundi among 68 people, including 20 ex-combatants.
The research found that most of them live precarious lives and have encountered difficulties in rebuilding their lives. The majority of ex-combatants have not benefited from effective and efficient support that would facilitate a return to civilian life. They are stuck in the past, waiting to see unkept promises finally fulfilled, all the while preserving their combatant identity. This situation furthermore hinders the ability of ex-combatants to overcome the violence and traumatic events they experienced, and to deal with the social and contextual pressures typical of conflict and post-conflict situations, and beyond.
“What we expected is not what we found when we came back. How can you explain that a person who has fought for his country finds himself in precarity?” —Ex-combatant from Cibitoke province
“The community should have welcomed us [home] as extraordinary people.” —Ex-combatant from Cibitoke province
The consequences of the limitations of DDRR are multiple for ex-combatants and for communities. And for the country’s fragile social cohesion, the risk factors for recurrence of violence remain present, especially during periods of heightened tensions such as elections.
Here, we present five key strategies to achieve social, political, and economic reintegration, to strengthen social cohesion, and to contribute to the non-recurrence of violence in Burundi.
1. Holistic approaches to Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS)
A group of 100 ex-combatants received psychosocial support as part of the groundbreaking “Twuzuzanye (Let’s build each other together)” project, funded by the Belgian government.
They attested to never before having benefited from any psychosocial support. The approach consisted of trauma-healing through group and individual sessions, as well as community-based actions and social reintegration such as civic education and capacity-building to increase their resilience.
“After my sessions, I experienced immense joy, and I no longer have difficulty sleeping like I used to.” — Ex-combatant, from rural Bujumbura
The experiences of the ex-combatants in Burundi demonstrate that mental health depends equally on psychological processes and social processes. An individual’s well-being hinges on their psychological state just as much as on social, community, and political dynamics. Comprehensive MHPSS actions offering people-centred interventions (trauma-healing) and community-based interventions (social) are fundamental to demobilise the mindsets of ex-combatants, ensure their (re)integration into the community, and to minimise their vulnerability to future violence.
2. Community initiatives for social cohesion
The return of ex-combatants to their communities of origin was not organised to take into account prevailing socio-political, security, and community dynamics. This was confirmed by the women community members participating in the research, who confessed having enduring fears of ex-combatants in their community, treating them with suspicion. In most communities, no preparatory work was undertaken as an institutional element of the DDRR process to support communities to welcome ex-combatants and for them to regain their social identity.
In line with the holistic approach to MHPSS mentioned previously, there is a need to make up for this lost time and do the work that would have made the DDRR process more effective. Actions based on dialogue, community engagement, social and cultural reconstruction, as well as the rebuilding of mutual trust are needed. The impact of the Twuzuzanye project demonstrates the effectiveness of this strategy at the community level.
Activities that bring us together with ex-combatants are to be encouraged. They would give us the opportunity to exchange, to accept each other, and to strengthen social ties. —Woman, community member from Bujumbura.
3. Collaboration with local leaders for reintegration
In the few localities where preparatory actions were launched, this upstream work was carried out by community leaders before the return of the ex-combatants. This voluntary action had a remarkable impact on their reception and social reintegration, so much so that the research notes that any successes in the reintegration process are largely due to the involvement of communities.
“Activities that bring us together with ex-combatants are to be encouraged. They would give us the opportunity to exchange, to accept each other, and to strengthen social ties.” —Woman, community member from Bujumbura
It is essential that appropriate programmes are established in collaboration with community leaders to address stigma, discrimination, and harmful behaviours hindering social reconstruction, which includes self-stigma and self-discrimination resulting from the internalisation of such external stereotypes by ex-combatants.
4. Promotion of positive masculinities
Civil wars are spaces where extremely fluctuating dynamics are observed in terms of gender identities and attributes. Among them is the militarisation of masculinities, which builds on hegemonic characteristics associated with men in patriarchal cultures, including violence, domination, and protection, reinforced by the wartime process of militarisation. When violence subsides, these socialised behaviours and habits need to be transformed, otherwise they can manifest themselves in the use of force and aggression in post-war periods, as confirmed by the ex-combatants and communities participating in the research. To illustrate the need to deconstruct the ‘values’, norms, and patterns of violence associated with these forms of masculinity, participants cited examples of minor disagreements provoking extreme acts of aggression, and even cases of sexual and domestic violence.
Achieving this deconstruction involves a strategy of supplementing DDRR processes with community-based actions aimed at deconstructing violent masculinities, transforming them into positive masculinities. These include actions implemented with ex-combatants and women leaders, and between young people in political parties, as well as initiatives targeting both men and women to challenge gender norms and foster positive masculinities. The latter are extremely important to influencing personal behaviours and social relationships.
5. Political transformation faced with instrumentalisation & remobilisation
The problems of ex-combatant reintegration, the lack of attention to mindset demobilisation, combined with economic precariousness, make ex-combatants vulnerable to instrumentalisation and manipulation. These risks increase during periods of political tension such as elections, where ex-combatants risk involvement in youth mobilisation and insecurity. This manipulation feeds on the prevailing belief among many ex-combatants that they are heroes of democracy.
To address these risks, politicians of different categories in higher and lower positions must cease using violence as a strategy and resist the provocations of their opponents, especially during pre-election and electoral periods. At the same time, reforms are needed to transform conditions conducive to the militarisation of ex-combatants and to promote local good governance that does not involve the use of violence or irregular, paramilitary groups for local security.
The research was carried out within the framework of the project, “Twuzuzanye (Let’s build each other together)”, with financial support from the Belgian government.
To obtain a copy of the policy brief, please contact us at iw-burundi@impunitywatch.org.
Learn more: Our work in Burundi