Muhoza was detained by the National Intelligence Service last weekend in Burundi’s economic capital Bujumbura.

She was charged on Thursday and transferred to the notorious Mpimba prison, a judicial source said on condition of anonymity.

"The investigation is continuing but the prosecution has announced that she is being prosecuted for endangering the internal security of the state and for ethnic aversion," the source said.

Security services arrested the 42-year-old journalist after comments she allegedly made in a WhatsApp group of practitioners discussing an alleged distribution of machetes to Imbonerakure, members of the ruling CNDD-FDD party's youth league, according to her lawyer and relatives.

They accused the secret services of "inflicting corporal punishment on her during interrogations."

Muhoza was allegedly blindfolded and handcuffed during questioning, as well as beaten and only allowed one meal of rice and beans a day.

Authorities have not commented on these claims, following a request from AFP.

It is not the first-time journalists have been targeted in Burundi, a deeply impoverished nation which has a poor record for press freedom and human rights.

A coalition of organizations representing Burundian journalists said on Thursday it hopes Muhoza is released and called on other journalists to show solidarity with her.

Global press freedom group Reporters Without Borders, known by its French acronym RSF, on Monday voiced its concerns about her arrest and detention.

Last year, RSF ranked Burundi 114th out of 180 countries in terms of press freedom.

"Burundian journalists live in fear of being threatened, attacked or arrested," RSF says on its website.

In 2023, journalist Floriane Irangabiye was sentenced to 10 years in prison for "undermining the integrity of the national territory", although the grounds of the charge are unknown.

Red Tabara has been fighting Burundi's government from bases in DRC since 2015.

In a post on social media platform X, formerly Twitter, Red Tabara said it had attacked two Burundian military positions on Sunday night, also seizing weapons and ammunition.

The rebel group said six soldiers had been killed in the attack.

Burundi's President Evariste Ndayishimiye in late December accused Rwanda of hosting and training Red Tabara after a separate attack in which the government said at least 20 people had been killed.

Burundi later closed its border with Rwanda, which rejected Ndayishimiye's allegations.

At least 20 people were killed in Burundi following an attack by a rebel group based in the neighboring DRC, a Burundian government spokesman said Saturday.

The burials took place at the St. François Xavier parish church, where a service was held to honor the victims.

"I went out to see my cousin who lives on the third avenue, I found that he had been massacred with his children," said Jean Niyonzima, a relative of a victim.

The attack targeted nine homes on Friday evening in the western town of Vugizo, close to the Lake Tanganyika border with DRC, according to the Burundian government.

"Frankly speaking, this is nothing short of sheer terror. A pregnant woman begged them to spare her life, but in the end it was all in vain," Burundian Minister of Interior Martin Niteretse said on Tuesday.

RED-Tabara, a Burundian armed rebel group based in South Kivu, eastern DRC, claimed responsibility for the attack in a post on the X platform, formerly Twitter.

The group, which denied having targeted civilians, claimed to have killed nine soldiers and a police officer.

Burundian authorities consider RED-Tabara a terrorist movement. The group first appeared in 2011 and has been accused of a string of attacks in Burundi since 2015.

In August last year, Burundi deployed soldiers to eastern DRC as part of a regional force invited by Congo to tackle the resurgence of the M23 rebel group there.

Some observers believed that the Burundi troops from the seven-nation East African Community force would be used to crush RED-Tabara.

However, the East African Regional force is currently being withdrawn in phases from the violence-plagued eastern Congo following complaints from locals and authorities that instead of disarming the rebels, the forces were cohabiting with them.

The Burundi Human Rights Initiative said Burundi had secretly deployed hundreds of troops and militia to the DRC in 2021 to fight RED-Tabara.

The impact of that secret deployment is not clear.

Bunyoni, whose trial opened three months ago, was prime minister from mid-2020 until September 2022 when he was fired, days after President Evariste Ndayishimiye had warned of a "coup" plot against him.

He was "sentenced to life imprisonment (on charges)... including plotting against the head of state to overthrow the constitutional regime," a judicial source told AFP on condition of anonymity.

The army general was also accused of using witchcraft to threaten the life of the head of state, undermining national security, destabilizing the economy and illegal enrichment, among other charges.

He had pleaded not guilty to all charges and said he should be acquitted because of a lack of evidence.

The court, which met in the political capital Gitega, also ordered the authorities to confiscate four houses and buildings as well as a land parcel and 14 vehicles belonging to Bunyoni, the judicial source said.

Five others in the dock including the two main co-defendants, a police colonel and a senior intelligence agent, received "sentences ranging from three years to 15 years," the source added.

The seventh defendant, a driver, was acquitted, according to the same source.

Chief Justice Emmanuel Gateretse delivered the verdict on Friday afternoon, with the court sitting in session at the prison where Bunyoni was detained.

Bunyoni was arrested in April in Burundi's economic capital Bujumbura on the eve of his 51st birthday.

A former police chief and internal security minister, Bunyoni was seen as the head of a cabal of military leaders known as "the generals" who wielded the true political power in Burundi.

A close ally of former president Pierre Nkurunziza, Bunyoni was an influential figure in the ruling CNDD-FDD party since it took power in 2005.

He had long been seen as de facto number two in the regime since a 2015 political crisis.

Ndayishimiye took power in June 2020 after Nkurunziza died of what the Burundian authorities said was heart failure amid widespread speculation he succumbed to Covid-19.

He has been hailed by the international community for slowly ending years of Burundi's isolation under Nkurunziza's chaotic and bloody rule.

But he has failed to improve a wretched human rights record and the country of 12 million people remains one of the poorest on the planet.

In 2015, Nkurunziza oversaw a crackdown on political opponents and made Burundi a global pariah amid turmoil after he launched a bid for a third term in office, in violation of a peace deal that ended a bloody civil war in 2006.