South Kivu : refugees from Lusenda and Mulongwe camps without assistance for two months

Burundian refugees in Lusenda and Mulongwe camps in Fizi territory, South Kivu province have not received any assistance for two months. They indicate that they did not benefit from the money as usual to buy food. They denounce famine and ask for help. INFO SOS Médias Burundi

Marie-Rose Mukunda has a family of seven. She says her family is at risk of starving because she has nothing to feed the children.

“My children have been sleeping without food for a long time because the World Food Program has not given us money to buy food since May”, she said indignantly.

Nduwimana says that to feed his children, he cultivates the fields of the premises of Lusenda. They pay him in flour and cassava leaves.

“When they entrust you with agricultural work, sometimes they give you cassava or 1 kg of cassava flour to cook for the children”, he says.

Due to this lack of assistance in the Lusenda and Mulongwe camps, some refugees have registered on the list of people to be repatriated to Burundi.

Jean Claude Bimenyimana, father of 7 children was repatriated on July 6 from the Mulongwe camp to the province of Cibitoke (northwest Burundi). He admits that “it was the famine that influenced my choice”.

Olivier Iranzi, representative of Burundian refugees from Lusenda, says he has contacted the UNHCR regarding this challenge, in vain.

South Kivu Provincial Interior and Security Minister Albert Musambya during his visit to Lusenda camp in early July promised Burundian refugees that he would inform the World Food Program and UNHCR of the delay in receiving provisions.

Burundi’s big western neighbor still hosts more than 43,000 Burundian refugees. They have, for the most part, fled the 2015 crisis sparked from another controversial term of the late President Pierre Nkurunziza.