UN representative ends visit

The UN Secretary-General's Representative on Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), Francis Deng, has welcomed the Burundi government's announcement that it will dismantle regroupment camps and its initiation of the decision in Maramvya on Monday last week. Deng, who ended his six-day official visit to Burundi on Friday, encouraged the government to "pursue and implement" the decision to dismantle the camps and called on the
international community to provide appropriate international assistance to this end. A statement from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said Deng was particularly pleased that a meeting was convened by the government with representatives of the international
community with a view to jointly planning and preparing support to persons returning during the dismantling process. Deng urged the government and the international community to work together to ensure that as a minimum, the basic humanitarian assistance and protection needs of displaced people were addressed. "In particular, he encourages measures to be taken to
ensure that the displaced have regular access to their fields in time for the planting season this month," OCHA said.