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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs |
BURUNDI-TANZANIA: Burundians begin to return home
BUJUMBURA, 6 May 2003 (IRIN) - A week after the transfer of the presidency from a Tutsi to a Hutu, the first wave of Burundian refugees arrived in Burundi, aid agencies said on Tuesday.
They reported that 500 Burundians had walked into Burundi from the camps in Kibondo District in Western Tanzania, and were gathering in Gisuru, a village in Burundi’s Ruyigi Province.
Although medical staff who visited the refugees said that their medical state was "not alarming", they called on aid agencies to supply food and blankets immediately as the returnees were sleeping out in the open.
Staff from UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, arrived in Ruyigi on Tuesday to conduct a preliminary assessment of the situation.
Leading up to the change in presidents, which saw Pierre Buyoya, a Tutsi, cede power to his Hutu vice president Domitien Ndayizeye, there had been much speculation as to whether the refugees would return home.
Themes: (IRIN) Conflict, (IRIN) Refugees/IDPs
[ENDS]
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