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Burundian number in UN refugee camps in Tanzania drops below 300,000

Burundian number in UN refugee camps in Tanzania drops below 300,000

The number of Burundians remaining in refugee camps in Tanzania has dropped below 300,000 for the first time since 1998, but nearly half a million Burundians now live elsewhere in Tanzania, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) said today.

"In total, 40,788 refugees have returned this year, leaving just over 290,000 refugees in the camps," UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond told journalists in Geneva. "The last time the camp population was below 300,000 was in 1998."

Last month UNHCR said many Burundian refugees who fled in 2002 wanted to return home, now that a ceasefire and power-sharing agreement have been worked out, improving the security climate in the Great Lakes country.

According to the Tanzanian authorities, however, 170,000 Burundians who escaped from the 1960s ethnic conflict live in settlements away from the refugee camps and some 300,000 others have settled down in Tanzanian villages.