Burundi refugee flow slowing but still steady

The number of new refugees arriving from Burundi over the last week of October and the first week of December totalled 3,260, with the influx decreasing but still steady, the latest emergency report from the WFP stated on Friday. Some 670 newly-arrived Burundians were registered in Myovosi camp in Kasulu over the two-week period ending 5 December, while a steady flow of refugees into Kigoma, Kasulu, Kibondo and Ngara Districts
brought the total to around 3,260, WFP added. There are estimated to be 400,000 refugees in Tanzania, most of them from Burundi. They are broken down to include 135,259 in Kasulu District (of which some 52,700 are from DRC), 110,269 in Kibondo District, 45,053 in Kigoma District and 109,280 in Ngara District, the report stated.

The inflow of refugees in recent months has more than made up for the number returning home from past conflicts, the international NGO Oxfam stated last week in a report on what it called "the forgotten emergencies". "Security in the camps is worsening with the situation in Burundi, as the arms trade grows and attacks on the camps become more focused," it said. Oxfam also warned of increasing malaria deaths in some of the camps, and of food shortages in drought-affected communities in
Shinyanga and Ngorogoro.