BUJUMBURA August 17th (ABP) – 9,653 returnees made up of 3,189 households have returned to their native land from January 1, 2023 to August 10, 2023. This return movement of Burundians to their native land is part of the voluntary repatriation movement facilitated by the government of Burundi and the UNHCR, director general in charge of repatriation, Nestor Bimenyimana, told a check by ABP on Monday the 14th of August.
Those returnees came from refugee camps in Tanzania, Rwanda, Kenya, Chad, South Africa, Uganda and Malawi. In terms of numbers, refugees living in Tanzania come first with a number of 1,350 returnees.
The general directorate in charge of repatriation also records a number of 213,645 Burundians who have already returned to their native land from September 8, 2017 to August 10, 2023. Thus, this general management notes 13,321 Burundians who returned home in 2017, 45,023 in 2018, 21,197 in 2019, 40,419 in 2020 and 63,320 in 2023. They returned from Tanzania, Rwanda, DR Congo, Uganda, Kenya, Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia, North Sudan, Cameroon, Benin, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Guinea Bissau, Guinea Conakry, Botswana, Congo Brazzaville, etc.
The tripartite agreement, which was signed at the end of the 2019 financial year, provides for the repatriation of at least 2,000 returnees per week, at the rate of 1,000 returnees per convoy and twice a week.