Uvira-Fizi : more than 870 Burundians transferred to Mulongwe

More than 870 Burundian asylum seekers were received on October 14 and 16 at the Mulongwe refugee camp. It is in the territory of Fizi in the province of South Kivu in the east of the DRC. However, they do not have the necessities to live. INFO SOS Médias Burundi

Those concerned had so far been settled in the Mongemonge and Kavimvira transit camps. It is in the territory of Uvira still in South Kivu.

Several households had recently told SOS Médias Burundi that they were living in very poor conditions without shelter or sufficient food aid, in addition to the children who could not attend school in the two transit centres.

It is the UNHCR that relocated them.

“These people are divided into 360 households”, said UNHCR South Kivu official Nadine Ndyoya.

However in Mulongwe, new arrivals say they lack everything.

“Here, there are no adequate premises to shelter us, we have nothing to cover ourselves with. Food assistance is not either sufficient. No respite for us”, lament chiefs of households contacted by SOS Médias Burundi this Monday. The majority of these Burundians had just spent more than a year in transit camps. Most are from the northwestern provinces of Burundi, bordering Congo.

Those who spoke to our reporters claim to have fled starvation, persecution, harassment against opponents. Some women had to leave their villages of origin after the abduction of their husbands.

The head of the UNHCR in South Kivu says 2,850 Burundian refugees have voluntarily repatriated in the past nine months. They were based in the Burundian refugee camps of Mulongwe and Lusenda (Fizi territory). The returnees have, on several occasions, testified to our reporters “having made the decision to return to us following poor living conditions in the camp”.

The DRC is still home to more than 40,000 Burundian refugees. They are mainly settled in Mulongwe and Lusenda camps.