The applicant, a Burundian national, requested international protection in France, claiming fears of persecution by the authorities due to imputed political opinions, as he was a high ranking military and of Tutsi ethnicity. By decision of 10 August 2021, the Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons (OFPRA) rejected the request, deciding to exclude the individual from protection on the basis of article L. 511-6 CESEDA.

On appeal, the CNDA confirmed the exclusion of the applicant from the benefit of the Geneva Convention (Article 1 F a)). The court noted that he was a former major general of the Burundian armed forces and there were serious reasons to believe that soldiers placed under his hierarchical responsibility in two military regions of which he was the commander, committed war crimes between 1995 and 2002.

The court considered proven the fact that the applicant's fears of persecution were well-founded, due to his Tutsi ethnicity and the anti-government opinions attributed to him. However, it also noted that there were serious reasons to believe that he had a share of responsibility in the commission of war crimes, as a senior officer, in the context of the Burundian civil war (1993-2005). In this case, the responsibility of the person concerned resulted both from his hierarchical position vis-à-vis the material perpetrators of the abuses, murders and forced displacements of populations, committed in localities under his command, and from the fact that he never sought to prevent or punish these acts. The court also ruled out any exemption from liability of the person concerned based on his activities after his departure from the army and on the amnesty from which he benefited at the end of the war.