Having lived most of her life outside Burundi, Séraphine Ngendakumana, 36, returned in November 2006 but has remained in a transit site at Gitara in the southern province of Makamba since then. Like thousands of other returnees, Ngendakumana is awaiting resettlement. She knows her province of origin but has never been to the village where she was born. She spoke to IRIN on 11 August:
"I first fled to [the Democratic Republic of] Congo in 1972 with my parents. When the war broke out in Congo, I fled again in 1998 to Tanzania but by then I was alone; my husband and three children had been killed. I am still alone here.
"I returned to Burundi for the first time on 17 November 2006. I know my parents used to live in Bubanza province [west of Burundi] but where exactly, I cannot tell. Some members of parliament from Bubanza once came here and asked me if I recognised any relative so they could take me there, but I refused. I have never been there, I know nobody. I don't know whether my parents had relatives there. I guess even if they had, they wouldn't know me.
"At least here at this site, my neighbours can attend to me and bring me some comfort whenever I am ill; we live under similar conditions and this makes relationships stronger.
"While in Tanzania, we were told they [the government] could help us to build houses. But we have been here for more than a year with nowhere to go. However, at least now, they [PARESI - Projet Appui au Rapatriement et à la Reintegration des sinistrés, a project in the Ministry of National Solidarity, Repatriation, National Reconstruction, Human Rights and Gender] have started building some houses.
“Nobody can be pleased to live in a makeshift camp, only refugees live there. Otherwise it will be leaving one camp for another.
"At least now we no longer have the problem of food. When I arrived here, we could easily go for nine months without receiving food aid. We were then forced to look for manual work in neighbouring farms and we would be paid about 1,000 francs per day [US$0.83] but now we regularly receive food aid, such as rice or beans. Even if it’s little, we cannot go three months without food aid. If we get rice, we sell some of it to buy other commodities such as soap, cooking oil or salt."
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This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
