Slight increase in refugees

UNHCR reported a slight increase in refugees from neighbouring countries currently staying in Burundi, up by 201 in January, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) said in its weekly information update from Bujumbura. The new arrivals are from the DRC and Rwanda respectively. The 199 refugees from the DRC brought the total number of refugees from that country currently residing in Burundi to 26,046, of which 5,882 are being assisted by UNHCR. Two new arrivals came from Rwanda, bringing the number of Rwandan refugees in Burundi to 1,262 of which five are being assisted by UNHCR. OCHA noted that both the government of Burundi and UNHCR have observed significant increased repatriation trends from neighbouring countries during January 2001 with some 1,749 registered returnees. During the whole of last year, only 6,830 repatriations were registered, it said.