Hunger causing Muyinga residents to flee, governor says

The governor of Burundi’s northeastern Muyinga province, Lazare Karekezi, has said people are going to neighbouring Tanzania because of hunger due to a prolonged drought. In an interview with Burundi’s Umwizero radio on Wednesday, he denied they were fleeing insecurity in the province. “There have been many people leaving in recent days for Tanzania,” he said. “There is full security in our province. Some people have left because they do not have enough to eat. We have learned that these people are being well received upon arrival in Tanzania.”

Official sources said Muyinga residents had started leaving for Tanzania last month because of problems in obtaining food, the Agence burundaise de presse reported earlier this month. “Everyone is asking why these people would leave a peaceful area to go to the Burundi refugee camps in Tanzania,” the agency said. Local officials have warned of the scarcity of goods in the markets and of mounting thefts of food from fields or homes. ABP said there was a similar situation in neighbouring Kirundo province, where the high prices of food products were forcing people to flee across the border into Rwanda.