UNICEF aids hundreds of displaced families

The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) distributed on Friday non-food items to more than 500 Burundian families who were displaced when rebels shelled Kanyosha Commune, Bujumbura Rural Province, the agency reported. UNICEF's relief aid of soap, blankets, jerrycans, plastic plates and plastic sheeting was the first non-food item distribution in the province since the shelling of the commune began on 17 April. The distribution followed an assessment conducted on Tuesday and Wednesday by UNICEF's partners, the International Rescue Committee and Catholic Relief Services. "During the assessment, the families were identified as living dispersed in other households since they fled the fighting between governmental forces and rebel groups last week," UNICEF reported. Thousands of people fled Kanyosha on 17 and 18 April when fighters loyal to Pierre Nkurunziza, leader of a faction of the Conseil national pour la defense de la democratie-Forces pour la defense de la democratie (CNDD-FDD), shelled the commune from the Musumba Hills. The people fled towards Ruyaga Commune and Buhonga parish, also in Bujumbura Rural. "Their houses were looted during and after the fighting and they are in desperate need of basic relief items in order to go back to their destroyed houses and rebuild their lives again," UNICEF and its partner organisations reported. UNICEF estimated that 1,000 families were displaced by the shelling. UNICEF and its partner NGOs were "assessing the situation and preparing to deliver appropriate and timely assistance". According to UNICEF, a majority of the displaced are women and children "who continue to be the most vulnerable victims" of the 10-year conflict in Burundi.