Displaced figure “inflated” by media

Humanitarian officials in Makamba province said local media reports of 100,000 people having been displaced in the southeastern province were exaggerated. The estimated number of displaced people being used by local officials and NGOs last week was just over 30,000, and there was no way the number of displaced had increased by 70,000 since then, an aid worker in Burundi told IRIN. Intensive fighting between rebels and the Burundian army in recent days had seen MSF-France and the IRC move international staff from Makamba to Bujumbura, pending security assessments, but the Burundi Red Cross Society and the Dutch NGO MEMISA continued to work in the province throughout, despite “precarious conditions,” according to humanitarian sources.

Fresh clashes were reported in the area on Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning, resulting in new population displacements, one source told IRIN. A MEMISA official said the NGO currently had two mobile clinic teams working in IDP sites at Kibago, Kayogoro, Vugizo, Nyanzalac and Mabanda, but the teams returned to Makamba town in the evenings because of the security situation.