UN official visits Burundi as thousands of refugees return from Tanzania
A senior United Nations official is touring Burundi to speak to government officials and examine the situation of the tens of thousands refugees returning home from Tanzania, the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said today.
A senior United Nations official is touring Burundi to speak to government officials and examine the situation of the tens of thousands refugees returning home from Tanzania, the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said today.
Assistant High Commissioner Kamel Morjane, who arrived yesterday, was scheduled to meet President Domitien Ndayizeye today.
He was going tomorrow to Ruyigi province, an area where many thousands of returnees per week are pouring through border crossing-points at Gisuru, Kobero and Gahumo. More than 27,400 Burundian refugees have returned home from Tanzania this year through the three crossing-points, 2,400 of them per week through Gisuru, which was opened in late January, according to UNHCR.
The agency is using a fleet of 43 heavy vehicles to take the returning refugees to their final destinations.
Meanwhile, UNHCR has also been working with 9,000 refugees from the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) living in Cishemeye temporary refugee camp, in the hills of northwestern Burundi, to find creative ways of comforting rape victims and training men and women to eliminate rape.
One innovative approach involved the appointment of 72 older refugee women as “mères volontaires,” or volunteer mothers, who help identify and provide special care to rape victims.
The commission has also trained a group of young male and female community assistants to teach others how to eradicate sexual and gender-based violence and the spread of HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases.
The mères volontaires and the community assistants have already reduced the number of rapes by convincing young women not to make unnecessary trips outside the camp to pluck cassava leaves for traditional cooking, gather firewood or grind grain.
UNHCR responded to local recommendations by arranging deliveries of smaller pieces of wood and installing grain mills in the camps, said Leonie Nyakageni, a community service worker.