Refugees should prepare to return - Mandela

The mediator of the peace process, Nelson Mandela, visited camps housing Burundian refugees in western Tanzania on Tuesday. UNHCR said he went to Lukole camp in Ngara district to tell the refugees about the current state of play in the Burundi peace talks. "The trip to a refugee camp fulfils a stated wish by Mandela to speak directly with some of the civilians most affected by Burundi's enduring civil war," the refugee agency said.

Mandela told the refugees to "prepare to go home" and "forget the past", the Hirondelle news agency reported. He also said agreement had been reached to deploy UN peacekeepers "from three African countries" to maintain security in Burundi. He also warned the rebels currently launching an offensive on Bujumbura that their actions were "indefensible" and a "day of reckoning" was coming.

Lukole's population of nearly 110,000 makes it the largest of the Tanzanian camps and settlements that together host more than 500,000 Burundi refugees. During the past five years, the number of Burundi refugees in Tanzania has more than doubled, from 245,000 to nearly half a million. The funds made available to UNHCR have shrunk from US $83 per refugee per year in 1995 to just over US $50 last year, causing a reduction in maintenance of primary schools and water pumps, the construction of health centres and the purchase of soap and sanitary materials, UNHCR stated on Tuesday.