NGO highlights findings of a needs assessment

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) has said in its latest internal displacement update that assessment needs conducted in various provinces at the end of 2000 and 2001 in Burundi revealed that in Rutana province, southeast Burundi, people displaced by the conflict lacked water points and assistance. In Bubanza province, northwestern Burundi, Hutus and Twa living in a site were found to be “severely malnourished” and had been living in inadequate shelters for the past three years, NRC said. While food security improved in the internally displaced person’s (IDPs) sites, in Makamba province, southern Burundi, public infrastructures and buildings need rehabilitation, particularly in the education and health sectors, NRC observed. It said that in Bujumbura Mairie, western Burundi, some displaced lived in inadequate shelters while hygienic and sanitary facilities were practically non-existent in the sites and many displaced had no access to land.

The risk of the displaced and other vulnerable populations getting cholera, measles and malaria had increased following the destruction of health facilities and of portable water sources during the fighting. The assessment also found the displaced households and other vulnerable populations in Gitega, Mwaro (central Burundi), Muramvya in the west and Muyinga in the north, had exhausted coping mechanisms and had started to eat wild herbs.