Humanitarian conditions in regroupment camps

Only 25 percent of the 38 regroupment camps in Bujumbura Rural are accessible by road, shelter materials are lacking and “crowding is intense,” Refugees International has said. “Sanitary conditions are an immediate concern,” the organisation said in a statement released on Tuesday. “The lack of latrines and resulting contamination of new camps by human waste causes the risk of an epidemic. Cases of diarrhoea, dysentery and measles have been reported”, although no deaths had yet been attributed to disease outbreaks, it said. “Severe health problems will result if better shelter is not provided immediately,” it warned, adding that food in the camps was also in very short supply.