600,000 internally displaced, refugee agency says

Some 600,000 Burundians were believed to be internally displaced as of September as a result of fighting between loyalist and anti-government forces, the US Committee for Refugees reported in a seven-nation review published on 2 October. The figure includes some 380,000 at 210 displacement sites, plus approximately 200,000 others who lived with friends, families, or on their own beyond the reach of aid. A Burundian health official, it said, had expressed concern that crowded displacement camps had become breeding grounds for HIV infections because of rapes and a breakdown of family structures. About 50,000 people - mostly Hutu - temporarily fled when rebels attacked their neighborhoods on the outskirts of Bujumbura in February, seeking shelter at designated sites in the capital or among friends and family. Most families returned to their homes after several days or weeks, the committee reported. It added that between 30,000 and 40,000 others fled clashes between rebels and government troops in the country's central provinces in April and that 15,000 residents of southeastern Burundi also fled their homes during the first three-quarters of the year. "Thousands of other new population displacements probably occurred but remained uncounted," it said. [For more details consult www.refugees.org ]