Share & more
UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy has urged the Burundi government to move forward with the dismantlement of regroupment camps, a UNICEF official in Bujumbura told IRIN on Monday. During her two-day visit to Burundi, Bellamy met President Pierre Buyoya and other senior government officials and visited the Ruziba regroupment camp near the capital Bujumbura, the official said. "She congratulated the government on its
decision to dismantle the camps. But we are hoping the pace of
dismantlement will move faster," the official said.
The government assured Bellamy that it intended to continue dismantling the sites based on a "phase-out plan", the official said. Only one of some 53 sites in Bujumbura Rural has so far been closed. The humanitarian situation in the sites remained difficult, the UNICEF official said.
"Children in the camps are exposed to malaria, cholera is under control now but could easily erupt again, children are not going to school, some are suffering from psychological trauma, and we can see cases of malnutrition," she said.
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