Mahama (Rwanda): banditry on the rise following growing poverty

The Mahama camp in Rwanda has been famous for several cases of banditry in recent days. Household items and telephones are the most targeted. Refugees fear that this situation could lead to other, more serious forms of criminality. INFO SOS Médias Burundi

Many households in this camp have already reported at least one case of banditry to the police.

“Food, clothes and even gas bottles. And then, we are surprised to see even a pot of food on the stove being stolen before it is even cooked,” says a Burundian refugee.

The refugees affirm that these cases are accentuated with the poverty which increasingly affects the households of residents of the said camp.

“Let’s say that banditry is not new, but at the moment it is more frequent and worrying. This is since the ration was significantly reduced over the past three months. As coal has become too expensive and the number of days cooking gas must last has increased, people are routinely having gas stolen,” say other householders.

The bandits equip themselves with sharpened concrete irons during the night and even in the middle of the day, especially when it rains. These bladed weapons make it easier for them to “break into a house or force a padlock”, as refugees denounce.

“No one answers the phone at night if they are not at home because strangers can steal it by force. We have many cases that have been reported. Without forgetting cases of fraud,” they suggest.

They ask the police to increase vigilance and severely punish bandits to discourage this unprecedented situation. Others fear that these thefts will degenerate into assassinations if this situation is not brought under control.

They blame humanitarian agencies like the UNHCR for “promoting this banditry” by depriving people of aid, which puts them in an uncontrollable situation because, they explain, “a hungry stomach has no reason to ‘ears to respect the rules’.

These refugees are demanding that the quantity of food ration be increased, while the UNHCR deplores the glaring lack of funding to justify repetitive cuts in food rations.

Mahama has more than 63,000 refugees, including more than 40,000 Burundians, the rest being Congolese.