Social media defaces Burundian president’s photo in protest against jailed schoolgirls

Following the arrest of three teenage schoolgirls in Burundi for scribbling on a picture of President Pierre Nkurunziza in textbooks, social media users have taken to defacing his image as a show of solidarity with the detained girls using the hashtag #FreeOurGirls.

The girls, aged 15, 16 and 17, who have been sent to prison to await trial, face up to five years in prison for insulting the head of state if found guilty.

The girls are accused of defacing photographs of Nkurunziza in five textbooks belonging to their school, but teachers pointed out that the books are shared among all the pupils as there are not enough for everyone to have their own.

Burundi has been in turmoil since Nkurunziza in April 2015 sought a fiercely-contested third term in office.

The violence has claimed at least 1,200 lives and displaced more than 400,000 people between April 2015 and May 2017, according to estimates by the International Criminal Court (ICC), which has opened an investigation.

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