{"id":56888,"date":"2026-01-19T10:56:01","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T10:56:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/ndayishimiye-asks-drc-to-assume-responsibility-for-congolese-refugees-as-crisis\/"},"modified":"2026-01-19T10:55:43","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T10:55:43","slug":"ndayishimiye-asks-drc-to-assume-responsibility-for-congolese-refugees-as-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/ndayishimiye-asks-drc-to-assume-responsibility-for-congolese-refugees-as-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"Ndayishimiye asks DRC to assume responsibility for Congolese refugees as crisis deepens in Burundi"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thousands of Congolese civilians fled to Burundi following fighting in South Kivu Province between the AFC\/M23 coalition and an alliance comprising the Congolese armed forces (FARDC), Wazalendo militias, Burundian troops, and the FDLR.<\/p>\n

Although security has reportedly improved in parts of Uvira city, some refugees attempted to return home. However, Burundian authorities closed the border, preventing their return.<\/p>\n

Living conditions for refugees in Burundi have continued to deteriorate. Reports indicate that several people have died due to diseases linked to poor sanitation in overcrowded camps.<\/p>\n

Speaking in an interview with journalist Hariana Ver\u00e1s Vict\u00f3ria, who is known to be close to DRC authorities and their allies, President Ndayishimiye said the Congolese government should assume responsibility for assisting its displaced citizens.<\/p>\n

He noted that while some refugees are being hosted by Burundian families, others without relatives have been settled in refugee camps. Ndayishimiye also criticised the UN refugee agency, saying it has failed to provide adequate assistance to Congolese refugees, and urged President F\u00e9lix Tshisekedi\u2019s government to intervene.<\/p>\n

\u201cI call on the DRC government to find ways to help these people,\u201d Ndayishimiye said. \u201cI do not consider them refugees in the strict sense, but people who moved from one place to another because they were fleeing an enemy that attacked the DRC, not the Congolese government.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that because the displaced civilians did not flee their own government, the DRC remains responsible for their welfare wherever they may be. \u201cThey are not enemies of the state. That is why they should be treated as internally displaced people who crossed from one area to another,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Ndayishimiye further suggested that the DRC could mobilise international partners to support humanitarian operations, stressing that Burundi does not have sufficient resources to manage the crisis alone.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs Burundi, we are encouraging our citizens to assist these refugees, but the situation is extremely difficult,\u201d he said. \u201cWe simply do not have the capacity to fully support them, even though cooperation is necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n

In early December 2025, Burundi received more than 100,000 Congolese refugees fleeing fighting in the Ruzizi Plain. They joined tens of thousands of others who had already been living in the country for an extended period.<\/p>\n

New arrivals were initially placed in temporary camps near the border and have repeatedly appealed to Burundian authorities to allow them to return home, citing dire living conditions and rising deaths in the camps.<\/p>\n

The Burundian government has rejected these requests and instead begun relocating refugees to camps farther from the border, including the Busuma camp in the former Ruyigi Province. Refugees relocated there report equally harsh conditions and have staged protests demanding permission to return to the DRC.<\/p>\n

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

Burundian President \u00c9variste Ndayishimiye has called on the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to take responsibility for Congolese refugees in Burundi, saying the country lacks the capacity to support them as the refugee crisis deepens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":2000100802,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[75],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-56888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-homenews","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":{"id":2000100802,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/bdi-27-93b3e.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/bdi-27-93b3e.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/bdi-27-93b3e.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/bdi-27-93b3e.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/bdi-27-93b3e.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/bdi-27-93b3e.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56888","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\/131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56888\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000100802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56888"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=56888"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=56888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}