Whether in Nduta camp, Mtendeli or Nyarugusu, these Burundians believe that the growing source of insecurity in these camps is linked to the fact that they are located near the Burundian-Tanzanian border.
Tanzania hosts just over 189,000 Burundian refugees. They are settled in three camps of Nduta, Nyarugusu and Mtendeli. The farthest of these camps is erected at a distance that can be 3 hours long from the border of the country they fled.
This distance worries these Burundians. “Imagine someone coming from Burundi on a motorcyclist, he arrives at us in less than 4 hours. He can come and commit a crime and return home without any problem or worry. That’s why here we find a lot of non-refugees in this camp. They are on a mission to destabilize us, “say Burundians at Nduta camp.
In Nyarugusu, it is also more than worrying. Congolese refugees accuse Burundians with whom they share the camp of harboring criminals.
“Our Congolese brothers accuse us of harboring armed men who most often commit armed robbery. And this is true because these men who destabilize us most often speak Kirundi, they are perhaps our compatriots. But they cross the border in due form with the complicity of Tanzanians for reasons we do not know, “regret the Burundian refugees from this camp.
“These people are not only threatening the security of the Congolese but even more so they are worrying us. They have the mission to pursue us even in the land of exile, “they add.
They ask that they be relocated.
“We call on UNHCR, UN, Tanzania and human rights defenders to advocate for us to be put in a safe place, far from the border with our country of origin. As was the case for the 1972 refugees in the Mtabila camps, which was located more in central Tanzania, “they insist.
Every week, at least one armed attack is reported in one of these camps. At the end of May, the police in Kigoma region, bordering the Makamba province of Burundi, reported killing three armed men who were about to flee to Burundi at the border. The Kigoma administration pointed out that another group of about ten people managed to cross the Burundian border.