Burundian police arrested 17 men and seven women on February 23 ,2023, at a seminar in the country’s political capital Gitega hosted by MUCO Burundi, a non-profit organisation that focuses on HIV/Aids. This was after neighbours alerted the security officials to their presence. Police said that the accused were found with condoms and on suspicion of homosexual practices. “After interrogations which lasted about ten days, the 24 were charged with homosexual practices and incitement by the public prosecutor,” Armel Niyongere, head of the human rights group ACAT Burundi, said late Wednesday. Niyongere, currently in exile in Belgium, said they would be remanded in prison to await trial. Earlier this month, Burundian President Evariste Ndayishimiye urged the country’s citizens to root out homosexuality.