OUT OF SIGHT, NOT OUT OF REACH The Global Scale and Scope of Transnational Repression Sub-Saharan Africa People attend the funeral ceremony for Welly Nzitonda, the son of human rights defender Pierre-Claver Mbonimpa, on November 10, 2015 in Bujumbura, Burundi. Image credit: Landry Nshimiye/AFP via Getty Images. At least six sub-Saharan African countries have engaged in physical forms of transnational repression since the beginning of 2014: Rwanda, Burundi, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Sudan, and South Sudan. In total, exiles have been targeted in at least 12 sub-Saharan African countries since 2014. In addition to the regional culprits, China, Libya, and Turkey have also pursued exiles in these countries. 46 All sub-Saharan African countries that engage in physical forms of transnational repression, except South Sudan, also target the family members of their perceived enemies abroad. Burundian human rights defender Pierre Claver Mbonimpa, for example, fled the country after an assassination attempt in August 2015. While he was recuperating from his injuries in a hospital in Belgium, his son and son-in-law were both killed by security forces in apparent retribution.304 In addition to family targeting, Sudan and Rwanda both use digital threats against exiles, and Rwanda and Ethiopia have targeted them using spyware. campaign against exiled opponents. A report by the Canadian Immigration and Refugee Board says the Imbonerakure, a government-controlled youth militia, “operate permanently in Burundi’s border countries: Rwanda, Tanzania, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, but also in more distant countries such as Uganda or Kenya, Sudan and South Sudan.” The report details multiple alleged assassinations, usually stabbings, of Burundian opposition members in Kenya and Uganda.307 The attacks coincide with a wave of repression and violence in 2015 and 2016 that followed President Pierre Nkurunziza’s decision to run for an unconstitutional third term, which caused over 300,000 Burundians to flee by the end of 2016.306 Jean de Dieu Kabura, an opposition figure who fled Burundi in 2015 during the political crisis, was found stabbed to death in Nairobi in January 2016.307 Tanzanian and Burundian security forces collaborated to detain and render at least eight Burundian refugees and asylum seekers in July and August 2020. All eight were imprisoned upon being returned to Burundi.308 While Rwanda’s campaign, examined more closely in a case study, appears to be the most far-reaching and active in the region, authorities in Burundi have carried out a violent The bulk of Equatorial Guinean cases documented by Freedom House target exiled opposition figures the government accused of plotting a coup.309 One opposition @FreedomHouse #TransnationalRepression