Actualité

𝐈𝐧 𝐁𝐮𝐫𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐢, 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐡𝐮𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐢𝐝 𝐢𝐧 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞, 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐨𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐟𝐮𝐠𝐞𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐠𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐡𝐮𝐧𝐠𝐫𝐲.

Monday, June 02, 2025

Rutana, Burundi

“I’m afraid I’ll die” if the aid stops, warns Claude during a food distribution at the Musenyi camp in Burundi, where thousands of refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are crammed together, and where American humanitarian cuts are sparking fears of food riots. A former bouncer in a bar in Uvira, the second-largest town in the Congolese province of South Kivu, Claude says he fled after a violent brawl between pro-Kinshasa Wazalendo militias and Congolese forces as the M23, an anti-government group backed by Rwanda and its army that has conquered large swathes of eastern DRC since January, approached.

At a time when the armed men were “shooting and killing each other” and “raping women”, the 25-year-old says he headed for Burundi in February to save his life.

After a few months in the overcrowded Musenyi camp, where he witnessed the continual decrease in food rations allocated to refugees, he now patrols with other young people to protect his compatriots from theft of the little food they have left.

“When I arrived here, I was given 3.5 kilos of rice a month. Now it’s one kilo. The 3 kilos of peas have gone down to 1.8 kilos. What I get in tomato sauce lasts a day, and then it’s over”, Claude sadly lists.

His first name, like those of the other refugees interviewed, has been changed for security reasons.

Congolese refugees line up to receive food during a food distribution operation at the Musenyi refugee site in Giharo, on May 7, 2025. Since January 2025, more than 71,000 people fleeing ongoing violence in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo have crossed into Burundi, its largest refugee influx in decades, UN says. In overcrowded camps settled in one of the poorest country in the World, deepening funding crisis threatens critical aid including significantly reduced food assistance, raising fears of violence. (Photo by Luis TATO / AFP)

Congolese refugees line up to receive aid during a food distribution operation at the Musenyi refugee site in Giharo, on May 7, 2025. Since January 2025, more than 71,000 people fleeing ongoing violence in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo have crossed into Burundi, its largest refugee influx in decades, UN says. In overcrowded camps settled in one of the poorest country in the World, deepening funding crisis threatens critical aid including significantly reduced food assistance, raising fears of violence. (Photo by Luis TATO / AFP)

Judith, 38, a Congolese refugee from Uvira and mother of eight, stands with some of her children in front of the communal tent where they live at the Musenyi refugee site in Giharo, on May 7, 2025. Since January 2025, more than 71,000 people fleeing ongoing violence in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo have crossed into Burundi, its largest refugee influx in decades, UN says. In overcrowded camps settled in one of the poorest country in the World, deepening funding crisis threatens critical aid including significantly reduced food assistance, raising fears of violence. (Photo by Luis TATO / AFP)

– Terror –

In the camp, the most desperate are now hacking into their neighbors’ tents to steal a little food, says Claude.

Groups are “sowing terror”, and households are being torn apart. “The reduction in assistance is going to lead to a lot of crime, a lot of things,” laments the former bouncer.

Further on, a tipsy man with a severed finger explodes with rage after missing a distribution and asks if, in order to eat, he has to “go back to Goma”, the capital of the Congolese province of North Kivu, now under M23 control. Children and teenagers say they are hungry.

In Musenyi, the reduction in food rations is a “major challenge”, and the resulting thefts could disrupt security, worries Oscar Niyibizi, the camp’s deputy administrator, who says he is encouraging the refugees to “empower themselves” by “farming” for food on the surrounding land.

Niyibizi says he still believes in a “better life” for the refugees… provided they get more help to get out of the emergency.

This is a tall order, given that the US government has decided to cut 80% of American humanitarian aid, whereas the United States alone used to fund over 40% of global aid. As no other country has taken up the torch, NGOs and UN programs have had to close down many programs, or substantially reduce them, due to a lack of funding.

The cuts came at a “very bad time”, as fighting intensified in the DRC, points out Geoffrey Kirenga, head of mission for the NGO Save the Children in Burundi.

More than 71,000 Congolese have arrived in Burundi since January. A difficult burden for the authorities in one of the world’s poorest countries, where tens of thousands of DRC nationals had already fled in the wake of previous violence. The Musenyi camp, set up in 2024 for 10,000 people, now has almost double that number.

– Deaths due to hunger” –

In the absence of aid, many programs have been affected, notably those dedicated to victims of sexual violence, when many Congolese refugee women were victims of this very thing, he regrets.

But above all, Geoffrey Kirenga fears “deaths due to hunger” in the future.

Caroline, a 26-year-old mother of 4, is calling for “help”, as she believes many women will otherwise resort to prostitution to feed their families.

Since March, the UN World Food Program (WFP) has been distributing rations reduced to half the minimum calorie requirement. Without renewed US funding, its assistance will cease by November, it warned.

In a community tent packed with dozens of people, Judith recounts how she fled Uvira with her eight children but without her husband a few weeks ago, after gunfire killed and wounded neighbors. And the challenges she has faced ever since.

“We all sleep here,” declares this thirty-something, pointing to a square of a few square meters.

Hidden behind a curtain: two sacks of rice, two bags of beans and two cans of cooking oil. But “the little we get won’t last until the next distribution”, she sighs.

According to the UN, hundreds of Congolese are moving back and forth between their war-torn country and Burundi as a result of humanitarian cuts. Whatever the risk.

Judith, for her part, will not be returning to the DRC. “I’d rather live in a foreign country (…) where I don’t hear gunfire”, she says.

Humaniterre with AFP