Burundi closes site hosting 45,000 DR Congo refugees

By : AFP

Date: 6 April 2025 10:36am WAT

Congolese refugees, displaced by ongoing clashes in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, gather to receive soft drinks from a social worker after their registration at the Gihanga refugee transit camp in Gihanga on February 17, 2025. Columns of M23 fighters allied with Rwandan troops on February 16, 2025 entered the centre of another key city in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo as the African Union highlighted growing fears that the strife-torn country could break up, as scores of people have fled since the fighters reached outlying districts of Bukavu, capital of South Kivu province, on February 14, 2025. (Photo by Tchandrou Nitanga / AFP)

Burundi has shut down a transit site sheltering tens of thousands of refugees who have fled violence in neighbouring eastern DR Congo, witnesses and a local official told AFP on Saturday.

According to the United Nations Rugombo Stadium has been hosting more than 45,000 refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the Rwanda-backed M23 armed group has been on the offensive for months.

In their advance M23 fighters have seized vast swathes of the DRC’s mineral-rich yet restive east, including areas along Burundi’s western border, triggering fears of a regional war.

The UN estimates that about 70,000 refugees have fled the fighting to Burundi since January in the “largest refugee influx in decades”, with a local official calling the situation at the Rugombo Stadium “untenable”.

With the rising numbers in Rugombo, Burundian authorities and the UN’s refugee agency UNHCR have been conducting relocations to other campsites including the Rutana refugee camp.

Some witnesses have said that the eviction was forceful and they received evacuation threats.

“There was a vehicle that drove through all the streets of Rugombo saying that the refugees had to present themselves to be taken to the Rutana refugee camp, and that anyone seen in Rugombo after that date would be considered a rebel and would be treated as such,” a Congolese refugee speaking on condition of anonymity said.

However some have resisted the move, while others would prefer to return home, according to anonymous refugee sources at the camp.

Rugombo Stadium is located about five to 10 kilometres (three to six miles) from the DRC border, while Rutana lies approximately 270 kilometres from Bukavu, a city near the DRC-Burundi border under M23 control.

Last week, authorities stormed the Rugombo Stadium alongside hundreds of police officers and military personnel to enforce the closure and ensure the camp was emptied, the anonymous Congolese refugee said.

“The majority of the refugees refused to go to the refugee camp because they had heard that the refugees were being badly treated and had received no assistance,” another refugee said, adding that some “saw it fit to swim across the Rusizi river” to go back home.

A local official said that the Rugombo Stadium was overcrowded and the refugees needed to be moved further away from the border with the DRC.

“The situation had become untenable, with… refugees crammed into Rugombo stadium and spilling out of it,” the administrative manager said.

Last week, the World Food Programme said the number of people in need of food aid in Burundi had risen to 120,000, forcing the UN agency to cut rations in half to accommodate the influx.

The local official confirmed that some refugees had been transferred to Rutana and that Rugombo Stadium “is now empty of any refugees”.