03-30-2018 ■ The tripartite meeting composed of Burundian and Tanzanian governments as well as UNHCR held in Bujumbura from 26 to 28 March concluded that almost 72.000 Burundian refugees will be voluntarily repatriated by 2018. “There will be two convoys of 1,000 refugees each from 5 April to 31 December 2018,” (...)

03-27-2018 ■ Burundi is hosting a meeting of the tripartite commission composed of Burundi and Tanzania governments and the UNHCR on the process of voluntary repatriation of Burundian refugees. More than 20,000 refugees have returned since September 2017 and almost 30,000 are waiting to be repatriated. The purpose of this meeting (...)

01-26-2018 ■ More than 4460 Congolese refugees have arrived since Wednesday night in Rumonge commune, in the south of Burundi. They flee confrontations between Mayi Mayi yakutumba rebel movement and the Congolese army-FARDC in South Kivu. This Friday 26 January 2018, humanitarian organisations rushed to assist them. “The situation is alarming, (...)

01-26-2018 ■ More than 2000 people from South Kivu in DRC crossed the Congolese border to Rumonge commune in Burundi. These people flee armed confrontations between the Congolese army- FARDC and the rebels known as Mayi Mayi Yakutumba. Those refugees come from South Kivu province in the territory of Fizi in (...)

09-08-2017 ■ 301 Burundians from Nduta refugee camp in Tanzania arrived in the country on 7 September. They were received in Gisuru commune of Ruyigi province. These returnees said they were voluntarily repatriated. Around 12,000 Burundi refugees seek to be repatriated by the end of December 2017. Ninety-seven families made of (...)

08-10-2017 ■ Burundi Minister of the Interior is calling on Burundian refugees to come back into the fold. Some refugees say the time is not yet opportune to return to Burundi. Their security is not ensured, according to them. “Some Burundians in exile say they are afraid of returning home thinking (...)

07-24-2017 ■ “They came in groups. 39 Congolese arrived in Rumonge on 20 July while 18 others arrived on 21 of the same month”, says Juvénal Bigirimana, Rumonge province Governor. The majority of them were women and children. They entered Burundi through Rumonge port. They said they had fled confrontations between (...)

07-24-2017 ■ A delegation of the facilitation, EAC and AU visited a refugee camp in Tanzania. The objective was to explore the possibilities of Burundian repatriation. A decision challenged by some people. Written by Agnès Ndirubusa and translated by Pierre Emmanuel Ngendakumana This is a boost for Bujumbura, which is struggling (...)

07-19-2017 ■ A visit to a Burundi refugee camp in Tanzania by delegations and personalities mainly from the EAC was seen by critics as a move to force the refugees to return. Following a visit of different delegations from EAC, AU, Tanzania and Kenya to a Burundi refugee camp in Tanzania, (...)

05-24-2017 ■ UN Refugee Agency is concerned about the unstable situation in Burundi which continues to drive people to flee to neighboring countries for their safety. “Arriving refugees continue to cite human rights abuses, fear of persecution and Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) as reasons for fleeing”, says Babar Baloch, UNHCR (...)