Photo of the week – Musenyi : protests over incomplete UN Women distribution

Congolese refugee women from the Musenyi refugee site, in Musongati district (Burunga province, southern Burundi), demonstrated on Thursday, October 9, after a UN Women humanitarian distribution deemed incomplete. They denounced an “injustice” and demanded transparency in aid management.

The usual calm at the Musenyi refugee site, in Musongati district, Burunga province, southern Burundi, was shattered Thursday morning by a spontaneous demonstration by refugee women. The cause : a UN Women humanitarian distribution, considered incomplete by the beneficiaries. The operation was supposed to benefit 1,751 vulnerable women from the site.

The activity was officially launched on Monday, October 6, 2025, in front of the cameras, with a sample of ten beneficiaries, who received all the promised items : loincloth, underwear, soap, sanitary pads, and a torch. The same treatment was applied to the first 25 women served when it resumed on Thursday.

However, when it came th3 time to expand the distribution to all beneficiaries, a UNHCR officer present at the site ordered the torches to be removed from the kit, claiming that the quantity was insufficient to cover all the women. The decision immediately sparked anger.

“We want our rights, we want our torches!”

Believing they were victims of injustice, the women refused to receive the remaining items without the torches. They sang protest chants :

“Tunataka haki zetu, tunataka mienge yetu!” »
(We want our rights, we want our torches!)

One of the protesters, a refugee on the site, confided anonymously :

“It’s incomprehensible that the UN Women would come and launch a distribution in front of the cameras with a complete kit, only to be told later that some items are no longer available. It’s unfair! We demand transparency in every distribution. There are clothes in the warehouse, brought months ago by humanitarian workers, but they don’t want to distribute them to us. We wonder if they came for us or to fill a warehouse.”

Distribution suspended, anger persists

Faced with tensions, the distribution was suspended, as the teams on site were unable to calm the crowd. The beneficiaries are now demanding that all the kits be returned in their entirety, as was done for the first women served.

So far, no new resumption date has been announced. The refugees, for their part, remain determined to receive all the promised aid, without exception.

The Musenyi site is home to more than 19,000 Congolese refugees, the majority of whom are women facing extreme hardship. For them, every item distributed represents a vital need.
Our photo : a clothing depot for refugee women at the Musenyi site, in Musongati district (Burunga province, southern Burundi). (DR/SOS Médias Burundi)