Buhumuza : cholera and overcrowding threaten Busuma refugee camp

SOS Médias Burundi

Ruyigi, December 19, 2025 – The Busuma refugee camp, located on the hill of the same name in Ruyigi district, Buhumuza province (eastern Burundi), is facing a cholera epidemic. Since the refugees arrived, more than 30 cases, including one death, have been recorded. The situation is exacerbated by overcrowding, poor hygiene, and inadequate infrastructure.

This information was confirmed on Thursday by the National Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons (ONPRA) during a site visit conducted by the provincial chief of staff, Salvator Bigirimana, accompanied by development partners.

“We are launching an appeal for emergency aid. The camp, initially designed for 20,000 people, is already housing more than 30,000 refugees,” said Mr. Bigirimana.

The refugees highlighted several problems : illnesses related to poor hygiene, food shortages, lack of drinking water, insufficient shelter and blankets, and inadequate latrines.

In Bujumbura province, in the west of the country, health authorities also confirmed 46 cases of cholera at a Congolese refugee center in Gatumba, near the border with the DRC.

Since the beginning of the month, Burundi has taken in more than 70,000 Congolese refugees, including more than 30,000 in Busuma, fleeing violence in South Kivu province, where the Congolese army, supported by Burundian soldiers and the Wazalendo militia, is fighting the M23 rebel movement.

Reactivated in 2021 and composed primarily of Congolese Tutsis, the M23 now controls several strategic territories in North and South Kivu. Kinshasa accuses Kigali of providing military support to the movement, while Rwanda denounces the support given by the DRC and Burundi to the FDLR, a Rwandan Hutu armed group implicated in the 1994 genocide against the Tutsis.

These conflicting accusations persist despite the Washington agreement, signed under US mediation. Kigali continues to deny any direct support for the M23, dismissing as “fabrications” the reports of UN experts, which estimate the number of Rwandan soldiers fighting alongside the rebels at between 5,000 and 7,000.

The M23 is now part of the Congo River Alliance (AFC), led by Corneille Nangaa, former president of the Congolese Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI), which advocates for a federal state in the DRC.

For its part, Burundi has deployed more than 10,000 soldiers in South Kivu to support the FARDC and the Wazalendo militias allied with the Congolese government.