Hungry Kibondo refugee reports “exaggerated”

The World Food Programme (WFP) on Friday played down reports in the Tanzania media of refugees abandoning their homes to escape hungry refugees who were marauding in the community and taking food by force in Kibondo District, Kigoma Region, western Tanzania. The ‘Guardian’ newspaper on Thursday quoted Kibondo police sources as saying that they did not have enough officers to control the refugees who had abandoned their camps because they did not have enough food. WFP believed the reports to be an exaggeration of relations between refugees and host communities in Kibondo, officials told IRIN. During a visit to camps in Kibondo by the Tanzanian Ministry of Home Affairs on Thursday, the refugees focused more on their frustation with the Burundi peace process than on food shortages, they added. On the issue of hungry refugees leaving their camps for food, WFP officials said they had been giving a ration of about 80 percent since December last year, and a full ration to vulnerable groups. The results of recent nutrition surveys suggested that the malnutrition situation was not escalating in the camps, especially in light of the end of the rainy season. The agency planned to return to full rations as soon as the pipeline situation allowed, they added. WFP said it was also keen on a full re-registration of all refugees as soon as possible because the original caseload for the current refugee operation in Tanzania was for 375,000 Burundian and Congolese refugees, but the agency was currently offering food assistance to some 530,000 refugees.