EU promises to sustain its share of refugee costs

The EC meanwhile called on Tanzania “to continue acting as a moral leader and as a guarantor of refugee rights” in the Great Lakes region. It stressed that the world had not abandoned Tanzania to cope with the problem alone, the Tanzanian ‘Guardian’ daily reported. Development and Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Poul Nielsen told regional authorities and humanitarian agencies at Lukole refugee camp in Ngara District, Kigera Region, northwestern Tanzania, that “any return of refugees must be peaceful and voluntary in accordance with international standards”.

In this respect, Tanzania was “an island of hope in a troubled region”. Nielsen accepted that the international community was asking a lot of Tanzania, and that the scale of the refugee population had created difficulties for it, but promised that the EC would “sustain its share” by supporting social, environmental and infrastructural projects to help the country cope. The EC would also continue its involvement in the peace processes of Burundi and DRC, from which most of the refugees in Tanzania originated, Nielsen added.