Refugee body begins assessment mission

Advocacy group Refugees International (RI) began a 25-day humanitarian assessment mission on Thursday, focusing on the situation for internally displaced people (IDPs) in Burundi and whether appropriate conditions have been put in place for them and refugees in Tanzania to return home. "The political instability and pervasive insecurity have caused displacement, with about 280,000 Burundians displaced internally and another 800,000 refugees outside the country, most of them in Tanzania," RI reported on Wednesday. It said this would be its first mission to Burundi since 2001, although it had regularly assessed the situation in refugee camps in Tanzania. During the mission, RI advocate Andrea Lari and McCall-Pierpaoli Fellow George Kun are due to travel to two provinces in Burundi and three districts in Tanzania to analyse the protection and humanitarian needs of actual and potential returnees. "Burundians are desperate for peace after a decade of war that killed 300,000 people," RI said. It added that since January, an estimated 2,000 Burundian refugees had returned home "even though the humanitarian situation remains tenuous". "RI is calling on Tanzania to continue its hospitality to Burundian refugees pending the possibility of organising a safe return," it said. [RI item on the Web at www.refugeesinternational.org]