{"id":35975,"date":"2017-10-04T08:04:45","date_gmt":"2017-10-04T08:04:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/unhcr-launches-urgent-appeal-to-help-burundian\/"},"modified":"2017-10-04T08:04:31","modified_gmt":"2017-10-04T08:04:31","slug":"unhcr-launches-urgent-appeal-to-help-burundian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/unhcr-launches-urgent-appeal-to-help-burundian\/","title":{"rendered":"UNHCR launches urgent appeal to help Burundian refugees"},"content":{"rendered":"

Of the requested amount, only 12 per cent funding has been received, making the Burundi situation one of the least funded refugee crises in the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe chronic underfunding for the Burundi refugee situation has severely hampered reception capacities and the quality of protection rendered by host countries,\u201d said Catherine Wiesner, UNHCR\u2019s Regional Refugee Coordinator for Burundi at the launch of the revised inter-agency regional refugee response plan in Kenya.<\/p>\n

According to Wiesner, refugees continue to live in overcrowded and congested camps, facing insecurity, deterioration of emergency shelters, shortages of water and food, and oversubscribed health and education services.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany refugee hosting areas are at risk of communicable diseases, including, malaria and acute watery diarrhea\u201d, Wiesneradded.<\/p>\n

In Mahama, Burundian Refugee camp in Rwanda, the impact of the huge gap in funding is evident as UNHCR and aid agencies struggle to meet minimum standards for refugees.<\/p>\n

\u201cFunding is a major challenge in terms of being able to construct shelters and respond to all the needs of Burundian refugees,\u201d says Janet Pima, UNHCR\u2019s Protection Officer in Mahama. <\/p>\n

\u201cBecause we keep on receiving new arrivals that means the needs are increasing every day,\u201d Pima added<\/p>\n

UNHCR says that in Rwanda, more than 85,000 refugees both in cities and in the camp. Such numbers place a huge strain on resources and Mahama camp is already at breaking point.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have around 54,000 refugees in the camp and the space we have has already been occupied by semi-permanent shelters,\u201d Pima said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have any more space which is the main challenge we have for now. We will not be able to relocate any new arrivals until we have an extension of the camp\u201d Pima added<\/p>\n

According to Pima, new arrivals have to wait for weeks, sometimes months, before they can be relocated.<\/p>\n

\u201cUNHCR is negotiating with the Rwandan government and local communities that own the land around the camp. However, with every refugee that enters the country, more pressure is added to already strained resources,\u201d Pima explained<\/p>\n

Pima says that if they don\u2019t get the space soon, refugees will be congested in the shelters or will have to remain in the reception centres for a long time
\n\u201cWe are appealing for more funding to help Burundian refugees,\u201d Pima added.<\/p>\n

\"Mahama<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and partner agencies have launched an urgent appeal for US$429 million to help meet the needs of Burundian refugees across the region.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[69],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-35975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-homehighlights","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35975"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35975\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35975"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=35975"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=35975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}