127 Burundian refugee households repatriated from neighboring Tanzania

Bujumbura, Burundi (PANA) - Some 127 Burundian refugee households returned home on Tuesday from neighboring Tanzania where they had taken shelter from the violent electoral crisis of 2015 in their country, the Burundi public radio reported on Wednesday.

The 127 households represent a group of 370 women, men and children, from different regions of Burundi, according to the radio.

More than 500,000 Burundians fled their country following a political and human rights crisis, linked to the controversial elections and marred by mass violence in 2015.

This year, 142,890 Burundians will be repatriated, making it the largest return movement in the past six years, Abdul Karim Ghoul, the UNHCR Resident Representative, announced earlier this month.

In 2020, 123,000 Burundian refugees were repatriated in 270 UNHCR convoys, including 110,000 from neighboring Tanzania.

The last Burundian refugees are scattered between Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

UNHCR has appealed for US$ 222.6 million to provide "essential" humanitarian assistance to at least 315,000 of these Burundian refugees still in exile.

Through this appeal for funds, the UN Humanitarian Agency and 33 of its partners aim to obtain "essential" support to guarantee, in particular, food, shelter, educational services, access to health care and water.

These services are considered "particularly important" in the context of prevention and response measures to the coronavirus pandemic.

The appeal is complemented by a "Joint Plan for the Return and Reintegration of Burundian Refugees", which covers the reception and monitoring of returnees as well as support for their reintegration in Burundi.

In 2020, UNHCR indicates that the response to the situation of Burundian refugees was "among the least funded in the world".

Last year’s US$ 293 million call for funds was only 40% funded.

-0- PANA FB/JSG/SOC/KND/VAO 24Feb2021