A group of about 100 Burundian refugees will leave Rwanda on Wednesday February 21 to return to their country. The New Times reports.
The refugees, many of whom fled their country in 2015 due to political instability, have voluntarily expressed the desire to return.
The group includes 78 individuals from Mahama camp in Kirehe district, and more than 20 others from Kigali.
On Wednesday morning, they will head to the Burundian border in Bugesera district, escorted by officials from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Rwanda, as they cross to their homeland.
As of October 2022, Since August 2020, UNHCR had facilitated the voluntary repatriation of 30,317 Burundian refugees from Rwanda through 63 convoys thanks to support from donors such as EU Humanitarian Aid.
In addition, UNHCR in collaboration with the Government of Rwanda had also supported the repatriation of 5097 Burundian refugees from Uganda since August 2021 – out of these, 3714 were supported in 2022.
Mahama refugee camp was established in 2012 after an influx of Burundian refugees into Rwanda, as a result of the political instability that occurred in their country in the wake of an unsuccessful coup d’état against the late President Pierre Nkurunziza.
That year, the camp received more than 60,000 Burundian refugees. In 2020, they started to voluntarily return to their country. To date, more than 30,000 have returned.
Currently, the camp hosts more than 40,000 Burundian refugees and more than 20,000 Congolese refugees. It also hosts some 29 others from countries like Sudan, Yemen and so on.
