Burundi violence affects refugee repatriation

Violence in Burundi has stopped the organised repatriation of Burundian refugees from neighbouring countries, UNHCR said in its latest fact sheet on Africa. One of the programmes suspended following the October killing of two UN aid workers in Rutana province was the repatriation of Burundian refugees from Tanzania. Prior to the suspension, an average of 200 Burundians were voluntarily returning home from Tanzania every week over the past 10 months, the report said. “The number of returnees had quietly topped 8,000 people, going chiefly to the provinces of Muyinga and Ruyigi,” it said. The outlook for some 275,000 Burundian refugees in Tanzania has become more uncertain as a result of the suspension, and doubts about the future of Burundi peace talks, the report said, adding that UNHCR staff were on the watch for another refugee influx and a “political radicalisation” of the Tanzanian camps.

Meanwhile, the voluntary repatriation of refugees in the DRC was postponed because of violence in Burundi. Among those affected were over 130 Burundian unaccompanied children in the DRC town of Mbuji-Mayi for whom it had not been possible to trace their families, the report said. It added that another 52 Burundian and Rwandan unaccompanied minors were recently reunited with their families in Mbuji-Mayi.