I'm Ma Julian, thanks for downloading this podcast.

Burundi is a small country that rarely makes the headlines.

It's in a beautiful and troubled part of the world, the Great Lakes region of Africa,

where I lived and reported from for three years.

Several months ago Burundi's government banned the BBC and I'm no longer allowed in the

country. So for this program I met former intelligence agents in exile. This is the sound of water flowing through an open roadside drain in an African capital city.

But there's something odd about it. Passers by noticed it and

filmed it sharing the footage on social media. It's blood, they say. The sewers running thick with bright red liquid.

It's an unusual sight, not something you expect to see flowing from an apparently ordinary house in an ordinary neighborhood.

So we set out to investigate.

I'm more Julian, and this is assignment on the BBC World Service.

How can you be sure that the house in the video is your house?

Oh, I'm very sure, but the roadside it's clear.

It's a place where I grew up, so I can't mistake it.

The story of this house and what happened in it

is the result of months of research by the BBC's

Africa Eye team. It's an investigation that takes us deep into the repression

program of one of Africa's most secretive countries.

And I should warn you that this program contains graphic descriptions of torture and killing. There are various methods by which you can abduct people.

Some people are set up and lured into traps.

For instance, by using their friends.

Sometimes they are arrested in the streets or in a bar.

...