Tanzania & Burundi
Tanzania receives Burundian refugees at increasing rate

afrol.com, 22 August - Burundian refugees are crossing into western Tanzania at an increasing rate despite additional military activity near the border and the alleged deployment of Burundian government soldiers to stop the movement. 

Almost 2,600 Burundians have been registered during the first half of August by United Nations High Commissioner fro Refugees (UNHCR) staff in Ngara and Kigoma. The rate of 160 people per day is up from just over 100 per day in July, when 3,378 refugees arrived in Tanzania, and from less than 30 per day in the month of June. Monthly totals of new arrivals had been declining steadily since the beginning of the year to a low of 850 in June.

Tanzania currently hosts more than 480,000 refugees on its territory, according to UNHCR statistics. 352,000 of these are Burundians, 104,000 Congolese (DRC) and 24,000 Rwandans. Existing camps are nearing capacity and UNHCR is continuously updating its contingency plans and response capacity. The Burundi, Congolese and Rwandan refugees are located in thirteen camps in the Kigoma and Kagera Regions of north-western Tanzania.

While the refugee camps are generally peaceful, their proximity to the border exposes them to a danger of being affected by the armed conflicts which plague the refugees’ countries of origin. Refugee women, in particular, have been vulnerable to sexual violence whilst venturing into remote areas in search of firewood.

Most of the recent arrivals are crossing to camps around Kibondo, at the mid-point between Ngara and Kigoma. A large number of refugees who managed to cross in the past month abandoned homes in Ruyigi province after being caught by heavy fighting between the government troops and FDD/CNDD rebels. Gunfire and explosions are regularly heard from Tanzania's border districts.

Refugees told UNHCR that at the end of July, in several villages around the town of Gisuru, civilians were beaten, houses were demolished and women were abused by rebels, apparently in reprisal for refusing to leave the area. Others say that government military sweeps are driving out civilians, especially young men, whom soldiers suspect of collaborating with rebel groups.

The estimated number of Burundians being displaced in their own country stands at two million, while the influx of Burundian refugees in Tanzania in January 2000 climbed as high as 23,000 in a single month. Since then the number of crossings registered has dropped steadily to just 1,200 for the month of April and 850 in June. Although the situation had been calmer in Burundi for a while, the decline in refugees crossing the border was mainly due to an increase in fighting in the border area and the mining by the governmental army of routes to Tanzania. Since the intensified fighting started in July, numbers are now close to 5000 a month, all according to UNHCR statistics.

Source: UNHCR

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