Gen. Ildephonse Habarurema the head of Burundi’s National Intelligence Service (SNR) is a cunning senior military officer with a discrete, dirty and ambitious background also feared to be interested in the highest office.
He is currently arbitrarily arresting several money changers as he prepares to strategically control the currency market for personal gain.
Details also indicate that several targets are languishing in the jails of the National Intelligence Services.
Gen. Habarurema was named spy chief in 2020 catching several Burundians off guard.
Reserved and discreet, Habarurema, 47, didn’t have the vicious reputation of some in the SNR, although he was known to have ties to some of the ruling party’s more questionable characters.
Friends and family members said he’s difficult to read: at times generous but also cold and intransigent when people close to him asked for favours. One thing is not in question: his commitment to the CNDD-FDD.
Habarurema grew up in Muyinga province but fled to the DRC in the early 1990s during Burundi’s civil war.
He returned to Burundi in late 1995 and joined the FDD. He was later sent to the DRC where he worked as a deputy platoon officer and later company commander under Ndirakobuca.
The two men have been close allies ever since.When the CNDD-FDD first came to power, Habarurema was the head of the personnel andlogistics office at Burundi’s military training school (Institut supérieur des cadresmilitaires, ISCAM) from 2005 to 2006.
Former military officials said that during this time, he was involved, together with other army, intelligence and local officials, in identifying and arresting some 30 suspected FNL members in Muyinga province between May and August 2006.
In late July 2006, the bodies of at least 16 men who had been arrested were found in rivers in Muyinga.
At the same time, Habarurema attempted to alert a friend and FNL member, Donatien Kizito, that he might be arrested.
A CNDD-FDD member allegedly intercepted the message and informed security officials who arrested Kizito.
He has been missing ever since and is presumed dead. “I know (Habarurema) was touched by the case of his friend Kizito,” said a person who closely followed the case.
After the arrests and killings of FNL members, in August 2006, Habarurema was sent to attend a military training course in China.
One observer believed this was a strategy by ruling party officials to remove him from the country and avoid scrutiny after these events.
When Habarurema returned to Burundi in 2007, he was appointed deputy military advisor in the president’s office where he worked closely with Ndayishimiye, then chief military advisor. They at times had a tense professional relationship.
“They were in a kind of competition and were like equals, rather than a boss and his deputy,” said a former military official. “Ildephonse didn’t want (Ndayishimiye) to be his boss.
He wanted to be on the same level.” Ndayishimiye had fallen out of Nkurunziza’s favour at the time, but Habarurema could meet Nkurunziza directly, without going through Ndayishimiye.
“Nkurunziza gave Ildephonse missions directly, bypassing Ndayishimiye,” said the former official.
“Ildephonse was also jealous of Ndayishimiye’s trips abroad. All this caused tensions.”
After gaining Nkurunziza’s trust, Habarurema was appointed to a series of prominent positions.
From 2009 to 2013, he was in charge of military intelligence at the headquarters of the National Defence Force; from 2013 until early 2014, he was deputy joint chiefs of staff (chef d’état-major adjoint interarmes).
He was then named permanent secretary at the National Security Council until November 2014, and went on to become permanent secretary at the Ministry of Defence.
In November 2015, Nkurunziza appointed Habarurema as chief military advisor in his office.
On 11 December 2015, unidentified gunmen attacked three military camps and a military training centre in Bujumbura.
Habarurema was allegedly involved in the military response to the attacks at Camp Muha, a large military camp in Bujumbura.
The police and a military unit called the Special Brigade for the Protection of Institutions (Brigade spéciale pour la protection des institutions, BSPI) clashed with suspected armed attackers.
Following the clashes, military from the BSPI, accompanied by Imbonerakure, killed scores of unarmed civilians in the Musaga and Nyakabiga neighbourhoods, in one of the deadliest episodes of the 2015 crisis in Burundi.
“The BSPI… were sent to kill and torture in Nyakabiga and Musaga,” said a former colleague of Habarurema. “Ildephonse can’t say he didn’t know about that.”
BHRI was unable to confirm if or how Habarurema may have been involved in these events or what measures he took, if any, to try to prevent the killings.
In December 2018, Nkurunziza appointed Habarurema as chief advisor of the SNR, where he worked under the head of the SNR, Étienne Ntakarutimana, alias Steve.
By then, relations between Nkurunziza and Ntakarutimana were tense. “He (Habarurema) was put there to keep an eye on Steve,” said a former colleague of Habarurema.
As Habarurema became established in national state institutions, he kept close ties with his native province of Muyinga, including with Aline Manirabarusha, the provincial governor until the 2020 elections.
When problems arose in the province, Habarurema would sometimes intervene.
When the former provincial head of the SNR in Muyinga, Gérard Ndayisenga, was accused of beating and arresting gold traders from Habarurema’s home commune of Muyinga in March 2018, Habarurema quickly drove to Muyinga and freed the traders.
Ndayisenga was arrested and a few months later transferred to Bujumbura province; Habarurema was instrumental in his removal from Muyinga.
He told those close to him that he was fed up with Ndayisenga’s involvement in human rights violations and corruption.
How Habarurema manages one of the country’s most powerful institutions will be a test of his will-power and independence.
As head of the SNR, he reports directly to the president, but his ties to other senior officials, particularly Bunyoni and Ndirakobuca, could create parallel lines of communication and exacerbate divisions within the upper spheres of the ruling party.
In late 2020, there were reports of a proposed reshuffle in the SNR and new lines of reporting; details were not yet confirmed.
