Increasing numbers of exiles are returning to Burundi, as confidence seems to be growing that peace has returned to their homeland, the United Nations refugee agency said on Friday.
Last week alone, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) helped 4 200 Burundians go home from Tanzania and Rwanda, spokesperson Jennifer Pagonis told reporters.
The UNHCR forecasts that total returns this month will reach 20 000, a sixfold increase on June and July.
”The refugees tell us that orderly communal elections at the end of June — nearly the last step in a long transition to peace and democracy — gave them the confidence to return home after up to nine years in exile,” Pagonis said.
On August 19, Burundian voters are almost certain to elect former Hutu rebel leader Pierre Nkurunziza as head of state.
That is set to mark the end a transition period and peace process aimed at securing a comprehensive settlement to Burundi’s 12-year ethnically driven war.
About 300 000 lives were lost in the fighting that erupted in 1993 after the assassination of the country’s first democratically elected president, a Hutu, between the Hutu majority (85%) and the Tutsi minority (14%), which dominated the military.
While the UNHCR is helping Burundians who volunteer to go home, it has not launched a formal repatriation programme, Pagonis noted.
There are still security fears, amid clashes between the Burundian army and one rebel group around the capital, Bujumbura, despite a nominal ceasefire and peace talks. — Sapa-AFP