Nyarugusu (Tanzania) : an SOS for a Burundian refugee who needs an emergency operation

Complications arose in December 2023 after a cesarean operation that did not go well for this refugee. Her belly swelled to the point of touching her thighs, covering all her genitals. Grâce Nibizi needs urgent surgery but the UNHCR, the UN agency in charge of refugees, has refused her this right. This refugee and her husband are counting on the goodwill of the Burundian diaspora, the UNHCR and its partner NGOs because the couple’s savings have been exhausted after trying several hospitals, in vain.

INFO SOS Médias Burundi

It all started in early December 2023 when Grâce Nibizi, in her forties, gave birth, not vaginally. Although her newborn was saved, the caesarean operation was not successful and left the refugee in total anguish.

“Right after the operation, I didn’t feel well. It was as if something had gotten stuck deep in my belly, heavier than during my pregnancy,” explains Nibizi, weakened in her small room in zone 10 in village 6 (10/D6/12).

The Nyarugusu hospital tried to treat her, in vain. “I came back after a few weeks but I wasn’t cured because my belly was already starting to swell,” she recalls.

She went to more than ten health facilities in the camp and outside this site which shelters Burundian and Congolese refugees. Desperate, she went as far as seeing traditional practitioners.

“Nothing has changed. For the moment, I’m starting to worry about my health.” The tests showed that I had to undergo another operation, but the UNHCR refused me the operation. I am only waiting for death or at least a benefactor, a miracle from God,” she says.

“I feel serious, interminable pain. I can’t sleep. Even though the wound has closed, it bleeds from time to time,” she says.

Her husband sounds the alarm

“I have contacted all the authorities here in the camp, all humanitarian NGOs, none of them want to save my wife’s life. I have used all the savings I had, however small they may be. At the moment, I don’t even have a penny to feed my children or clothe them,” laments Jean Marie Bizimana, Grâce Nibizi’s husband.

He is calling for emergency aid. “I often hear about people from the diaspora who come together to help vulnerable people or lives in danger. I beg them to help me. I have nothing to pay in return, let them consider this action as a service rendered to God or his offering,” he says.

He especially wants the UNHCR to pull itself together. “I ask any charitable soul or any other person who could to put pressure so that my wife is treated. The UNHCR should be called upon …”, he says.

A gynecologist contacted by SOS Médias Burundi explains that the problem could result from a cesarean operation that was not successful.

“In any case, a diagnosis by ultrasound and / or X-ray is more than urgent to determine the cause and propose an adequate solution. Urgent surgery is necessary,” he insisted.

For this gynecologist, a year without treatment is a long period, likely to cause a situation that can damage cells or further complicate subsequent operations. He pleads for emergency aid for this Burundian woman.

Refugees in the Nyarugusu camp in Tanzania recall that this case is a revealing example of poor living conditions and especially poor reception and treatment in health facilities. They give examples of patients who die every week due to the negligence of nurses.

“Last week, two women died in the hospital due to the negligence of nurses. So, they want Grâce, who had survived, to join the others. We demand that her case be taken further, even to Geneva,” they react.

The Nyarugusu camp hosts more than 110,000 refugees, including more than 50,000 Burundians, the rest being Congolese.

There was no direct reaction from the UNHCR and its partner NGOs in charge of the health component in Nyarugusu. But the UN agency continues to explain the decrease in its aid to refugees in refugee sites in the sub-region by the funding crisis, with human rights and refugee organizations in particular denouncing “a most forgotten refugee crisis.”

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Grâce Nibizi photographed in her room at Nyarugusu camp in Tanzania (SOS Médias Burundi)