OCHA Situation Report
Burundi
29 October - 4 November 2007


ACTIVITIES AND UPDATES

Assistance to Burundians expelled from Tanzania

During the week under review, the Government project for the
reintegration of war-affected persons (PARESI) registered 58 Burundians
expelled from Tanzania who arrived through the entry point of
Kobero/Muyinga Province. Since the opening of the Mabanda/Makamba
Province transit site in October, 23 persons have been recorded. In
2007, PARESI has recorded 8,665 expelled persons, consisting of 4,229
families.

With funding from the European Commission, UNICEF is providing
assistance to expelled persons in collaboration with its implementing
partners. Assistance was provided through: the management of transit
centres (Burundian Red Cross and Solidarites); registration and
transportation of expelled persons (PARESI); counseling centres and
protection of data collected (Norwegian Refugee Council); the provision
of psychological and medical support (Africa Humanitarian Action and
HealthNet-TPO), and assistance to unaccompanied expelled children (IRC).
Furthermore, UNICEF provided plastic sheetings to the people transferred
from the temporary transit site of Kigamba to the new settlement area in
Mishiha/Cankuzo Province.

Update on repatriation and refugees

UNHCR registered 1,634 Burundian refugees who arrived from Tanzania
through the entry points of Kobero/Muyinga Province (226), Gisuru/Ruyigi
Province (818) and Mabanda/Makamba Province (572). In Bujumbura Mairie,
18 returnees arrived from DR Congo under the UNHCR facilitated
repatriation process while 2 spontaneous returnees were registered and
assisted in Mabanda. Since January 2007, 33,034 Burundian refugees have
been repatriated to their home country from Tanzania including 442
spontaneous returnees. So far, 372,633 Burundians refugees have returned
under the UNHCR facilitated repatriation process which began in April
2002.

As for refugees in Burundi, UNHCR completed the screening of refugees
from the Democratic Republic of Congo in the Musasa transit center in
Ngozi on 31 October. While 5,529 refugees (1,409 families) successfully
passed the screening process, 1,736 persons were rejected for either
fraud or absence from the camp during the whole exercise. During the
reporting period, no new transfers were organised from Bujumbura to
Musasa.

A transit center for returnees has been opened in Gitega

UNHCR has opened a transit center in Gitega Province in order to ease
the transfer of Burundian returnees arriving through a border
crossing-point which is far from their places of origin. During the
reporting week, 284 returnees stayed temporarily at the center; 219
persons entered Burundi through Mabanda/Makamba Province and travelled
to the north while the remaining 65 arrived through Gisuru/Ruyigi
Province and headed south of the country. The Gitega transit center can
currently accommodate at least 200 persons per night.

Emergency assistance to semi-permanent schools and emergency
rehabilitation

UNICEF provided 3,000 aluminum sheets for about 75 classrooms and 50
tons of cement for the emergency rehabilitation or construction of
semi-permanent schools being built by communities in the Provinces of
Karuzi, Ruyigi, Makamba and Bubanza.

Update on food aid distribution

In collaboration with its implementing partners, WFP distributed 467 MT
of food to 47,736 beneficiaries mostly through the School feeding and
Food for Work programmes.

Protection

Supported by UNICEF, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) continues
to support unaccompanied expelled children. In this regard, IRC
organized monitoring visits to 43 unaccompanied children over the
reporting period. Two children received further assistance including a
return package while IRC social assistants met with administrative
authorities to advocate for the protection of two unaccompanied returnee
children in the Muyinga transit center. Food aid comprised of rice,
beans and oil were distributed to 32 children including 11 expelled
children. Food aid was equally given to 3 temporary foster families,
each of whom received 40kgs of rice, 40 kgs of cassava flour, and 2 kgs
of oil. Furthermore, 26 identified unaccompanied children received bean
and potato seeds for the 2008A agricultural season. They were given
20kgs of each type of seed.

Support to the National Land Commission

UNHCR has officially handed over five all-terrain vehicles to the
National Commission for Land and Property on 02 November. The vehicles
were purchased from a contribution from the UN Peacebuilding Funds,
which allocated USD 700,000 in 2007 to the Land Commission through UNHCR
for the purchase of equipment and capacity-building.

Integrated Food Security and Humanitarian Phase

With the objective of harmonizing the different humanitarian phases and
food security levels, and to establish better planning mechanisms for
the provision of response to food security and nutritional crises, a
four-day regional workshop was held in Nairobi/Kenya (29 Oct - 1 Nov).
Participants shared experiences on their use of the integrated food
security and humanitarian phase classification (IPC). This workshop
followed a series of workshops on food security analysis based on the
integrated food security and humanitarian phase classification in the
respective implementing countries in Eastern-Central Africa including
Somalia, Burundi, Kenya, Eritrea, Sudan, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Uganda and
Tanzania. In Burundi, this analysis which was carried out in Gitega from
20-24 August was attended by food security experts from the Ministry of
Agriculture and Livestock, UN agencies, NGOs and national structures.
The Nairobi workshop was attended by 6 participants from Burundi from
the Ministry of Public Health, the Ministry of Agriculture and
Livestock, UNICEF, FAO, WFP and Action Contre la Faim (ACF).

Lack of rains may affect agricultural season 2008A in the Eastern region
of Burundi

According to monitoring reports from the Early Warning System/Food
Security Surveillance (SAP/SSA) sector, the agricultural situation is
cause for concern in the Eastern region in general and the Moso region
in particular. Since the beginning of agricultural season 2008A, it has
not rained in the Moso region which covers parts of Rutana, Ruyigi,
Cankuzo and Makamba Provinces. The risk of consumption of planting seeds
is therefore high given an extended lean period.

For more information: E-mail: ocha-burundi@un.org, Tel: +257 22 205000
Ext. 5542

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