Burundi : Congolese refugees receive financial aid following a shortage of food supplies

Since Wednesday, September 4, Congolese refugees living in Burundi have been receiving cash aid. The World Food Programme (WFP) explains that it wants to fill the gap “because the order for food products from abroad may be slow to arrive”. Beneficiaries say they are happy but fear the increase in the price of food on the local market.

INFO SOS Médias Burundi

Beneficiaries are Congolese refugees from the camps of Nyakanda, Bwagiriza Gasorwe, Kavumu and those who are settled on the Musenyi site in the provinces of Ruyigi-Cankuzo (east), Ngozi-Muyinga (northeast) and Rutana (southeast).

“Each refugee who is at least 18 years old receives 36,000 Burundi francs, or five US dollars”, we learned.

To facilitate the distribution, a biometric system has been in place since last month. Each family is represented by a person who presents himself with his fingerprints to receive the aid.

“This system aims to prevent fraud and ensure that each beneficiary receives the amount due to them,” a WFP official explains.

He adds that unaccompanied children, schoolchildren and students in Bujumbura, the commercial city, or in other provinces where there are no refugee camps, must choose a proxy.

Beneficiaries satisfied, but…

Refugees say they are happy to receive the cash assistance. However, they fear that the amount will not be enough to face the prices on the local market.

“It is good that we are given the money. But five dollars is not enough to feed my family. Now we have to rely on the local market, where prices are very high. I don’t know how I will manage,” laments a mother of four children from the Kinama camp in northeastern Burundi.

Congolese refugees waiting for their cash aid in a camp in northern Burundi, September 2024 (SOS Médias Burundi)

This is also the case for a mother of two children that SOS Médias Burundi met in Muyinga : “receiving money allows me to make a choice of what we want to eat. However, the amount is too small while the prices on the market have increased considerably”, she says.

Price speculations

Even if refugees receive money in cash, they are afraid that traders may speculate on prices.

In response to the refugees’ concerns, the UNHCR, in collaboration with the National Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons (ONPRA), issued a press release encouraging traders in Muyinga and those near the camp to sell their products directly and at the normal price to refugees.

“However, very few traders have responded to our call. They are still hesitant and fear that the low purchasing power of refugees will make transactions unprofitable”, noted the WFP.

The small East African nation is home to more than 86,000 Congolese refugees, mostly members of the Banyamulenge community, originally from the South Kivu province in the east of the vast Central African country, which borders Burundi.

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Congolese refugees at a water point in the Musasa camp in northern Burundi (SOS Médias Burundi)