Burundi: UN refugee agency set to move Congolese to safer camps after massacre

A month after a massacre left more than 150 Congolese dead at a transit centre in Burundi after they had fled ethnic fighting in their own country, the United Nations refugee agency is preparing to relocate thousands of others away from the border area to safer sites deeper inside the small Central African nation.

The first transfer to the new camp of Giginha, 50 kilometres from Bujumbura, the capital, is scheduled to take place on Tuesday and transit centres in the border area will be closed as soon as the refugees are relocated. Nearly 20,000 Congolese fled the fighting in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in June.

The transit centre at Gatumba, scene of the 13 August massacre of ethnic Tutsi, is already closed. Eyewitnesses implicated Hutu from the DRC and neighbouring Rwanda as well as from Burundi itself. Burundi and Rwanda have been torn by decades of fighting between the two groups, which has spilled over into the eastern DRC.

UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) spokesman Ron Redmond told a news briefing in Geneva today that agency personnel and troops from the UN Operation in Burundi (ONUB) will go to Giginha tomorrow to ensure that all security measures are in place to ensure the safety of the refugees once they arrive next week.

As well as Giginha, which is now ready to receive a minimum of 6,000 refugees, UNHCR is working with partner agencies to open another new camp at Giharo, in the eastern province of Rutana. Preparations are still underway there to organize shelter, food, water, medical and educational services for several thousand refugees.

A third camp, which already existed and sheltered 8,000 Congolese in Gasorwe before the latest June influx, can also take more refugees.

Of the two border transit centres still open, Rugombo is almost empty after many refugees left of their own free will, with large numbers reportedly returning to the DRC, while Kararuma still shelters some 6,000 Congolese.

The Burundian Government decided to close all border camps after the massacre, giving refugees three options: to relocate further inland, apply for residency in their local areas in Burundi or return to DRC if they so wish.

UNHCR does not at this moment assist Congolese to repatriate to DRC since their home areas are still unsafe.