Anti-clerical campaign of the government of Burundi

Anti-clerical campaign of the government of Burundi was a policy of repression and restriction of the rights of the Catholic Church, pursued in Burundi from 1977 to 1987 by the regime of President Jean-Baptiste Bagaza.

The repression against the Roman Catholic Church stemmed from the ethnic conflict that plagued Burundi since its independence. The military regime, representing the interests of the Tutsi minority, suspected the church of supporting the discriminated Hutu majority. Starting in 1977, President Bagaza's government consistently restricted the rights of the church, evidenced by measures such as: the liquidation of Catholic press and education, the expulsion of hundreds of foreign missionaries, limitations on religious freedom, and the arrest of clergy and lay Catholic activists. Normalization of relations between the state and the church occurred only after Bagaza was overthrown in the 1987 coup d'état.