Since October 1993 when the first freely elected president of Burundi, Melchoir Ndadaye, was assassinated a wave of violence has claimed over 300,000 lives in the country. The conflict which has mainly been between the two ethnic groups, the majority Hutus and minority but politically strong Tutsis has ravaged the country making it one of the poorest countries in the world. Hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people (IDPs) live in camps while over 100,000 people are said to be dispersed and surviving in forests and mountainous areas. The country’s subsistence economy is estimated to have further contracted by 25% in the last 5 years while access to basic social and health services have severely diminished. Conditions for internally displaced people remain deplorable. Humanitarian agencies provide limited food rations, non-food items and health-care services to some accessible populations. More than 70 percent lack access to potable water, while an estimated 30 percent do not have access to sufficient sanitation facilities, according to the UN reports. It is estimated that over 400,000 Burundian refugees live in neighbouring countries as refugees with the majority 370,000 being in Tanzania.

Since the signing of the peace and reconciliation agreement by 19 political parties in August 2000 in Arusha, Tanzania and the subsequent cease fire agreement between the government and the largest combatant opposition group, the National Council for Defence of Democracy – Forces for Defence of Democracy (CNDD-FDD) considerable progress towards peace has been made. However difficulties still exists as one opposition faction, Forces of National Liberation (FNL) has been refusing to be part of the peace initiatives and internal fighting between the FNL and FDD continue to cause further displacement of people in some of the provinces and especially Bujumbura rural. Notwithstanding these shortcomings, there is hope that full peace can be achieved soon and that the refugees could begin to return back from exile and especially from Tanzania.

This appeal is a follow-up of the previous appeals issued since 1996 for relief and emergency response programs for the IDPs in the country. The appeal implemented by the Conseil National Des Eglises du Burundi (CNEB), Norwegian Church Aid (NCA), and Christian Aid (CA) include programs in the rehabilitation of schools and health centres, provision of non food items for the IDPs and returnees, agricultural and environment programs, water and sanitation, capacity building programs for local partners working with international partners such as NCA and CAID. It also includes the repatriation program for refugees from Tanzania where the Tanganyika Christian Refugee Services (TCRS) will be collaborating with the CNEB to ensure that the returnees will be provided with basic needs upon their return. DanChurchAid (DCA) has for the second time seconded an expert to work with the CNEB as part of capacity building efforts to the council.

Project Completion Date:

CNEB - 31 December 2004

NCA - 31 January 2005

CAID - 31 December 2004

Signed by:
John Nduna, ACT Acting Director

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Burundi - Rehabilitation - AFBI41 (file size: 121 Kb)

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