At least 300 families will be sent back to their localities of origin from Bujumbura city. “For the first round, we have sent back 100 families and others will follow,” said Félix Ngendabanyikwa, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Human Rights, Gender and Social Affairs.
These families are transported to their provinces of origin in “Hiace” type vehicles from “Gare du Nord” parking
Those families have received a package made of two hoes, 25kg of rice and an amount of BIF 50,000 which will help them to integrate local associations.
Those families made of women, children and young people were sheltered in different neighborhoods of the economic capital Bujumbura.
Some of them were beggars and others street vendors. “We are tired of living in Bujumbura city. Life is very hard,” says Ancille Mvukabanka, a mother of two kids aged 45.
She says she has been living in Bujumbura for ten years. She says she started begging when she lost her husband. “I hope I will find my plots of land in my locality of origin and grow crops”, she adds.
Joséphine Hatungimana is a widow from Ngozi province. She says she has been living in Bujumbura for 12 years as a street vendor. “As the police are always chasing after us, it was not easy to feed three children as a street vendor and widow,” she says.
The Ministry for Human Rights, Gender and social Affairs, works in close collaboration with the local administration to integrate those families.
“We have focal agents in the country. When there are problems, they report them so that we find solutions”, says an agent of the ministry found on the spot. He adds that the registration of those families was voluntary. “We didn’t force anyone to return to their locality of origin. We only sensitize them,” he says.
IWACU Open Data
