Nyarugusu (Tanzania): ban on animal husbandry in the camp, a new binding measure for refugees

The Nyarugusu camp administration has banned all animal husbandry. All cattle and small stock must be sold or driven out of camp. Farmers complain. INFO SOS Médias Burundi

At the Nyarugusu camp in Tanzania, there is a large part of the breeding of pigs and chickens as well as cows.

The camp administration has given an ultimatum that all these pets must be removed from the camp as part of hygiene preservation within a week, the Tanzanian government official said. This order must be carried out, otherwise “severe sanctions for pets and their owners will be taken”.

A measure that breeders find unjustified

“We don’t know the sin we committed anyway. These hens gave me eggs, either to eat or sell them and they do not cause any problem neither to me nor to my neighbors, because they do not even come out. So what am I going to do with it? Eat them ? Sell ​​them ? asks a Burundian refugee, owner of a chicken coop.

Others have begun to take substantial action.

“Some sell their herds at a low price and others prefer to slaughter them to sell the meat. At the market, the meat is cheaper, today I go to eat it”, ironically Burundian refugees who ask the Tanzanian government to suspend these draconian and untimely measures.

In addition to the fact that these herds could help diversify and enrich the diet of the refugees, they could also provide manure for agriculture, itself now banned in this camp. However, all these measures only concern the areas occupied by the Burundians, while the Congolese themselves have complete freedom to undertake the income-generating activities of their choice, a situation which fuels poor cohabitation between the two communities, say humanitarian witnesses in this camp which shelters more than 120,000 refugees.