It is around 11:30 am that about ten large buses and trucks land on the Burundi-Tanzanian border in the Ruyigi province, Gisuru commune.
97 Burundian families, or 301 people, from the Nduta camp in Tanzania, have returned. They are welcomed by the Assistant to the Minister of the Interior, Terence Ntahiraja, and Kigoma Regional Commissioner Emmanuel Maganga, governments of Burundi and Tanzania. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Red Cross are also on hand for repatriation. Some say they have fled the political crisis of 2015. Others have not been able to withstand the famine that has been raging since January 2017.
They will be assisted in food for three months. They also received $ 40 per adult and $ 20 per child, according to UNHCR deputy representative in Burundi, Soufiane Aojali. They will then be taken to a transit center in Ruyigi commune.
Mr Ntahiraja asked the inhabitants of Ruyigi to welcome the returnees. He said that by the end of this year, 12,000 refugees from Tanzania would be repatriated.
Burundian refugees from Nduta camp repatriated to Burundi: Iwacu Web TV:
