Yves Nzobatinya, 27, arrived in Rwanda from his native Burundi in 2016 as a refugee. Nzobatinya says that he fled his homeland to avoid arrest and torture after participating in public demonstrations protesting the now deceased President Pierre Nkurunziza’s third term in office, which he still insists was illegal. Nkurunziza, 55, who had ruled Burundi since 2005, succumbed to cardiac arrest Monday evening at Karusi Fiftieth Anniversary Hospital in Central Burundi, where he had been hospitalised since June 6. In an interview with The New Times on Wednesday, Nzobatinya took a long pause when he was asked to comment on the death of the outgoing president of his motherland. “I thought it was a hoax and then my mother who still lives in Burundi sent me a message to confirm it. I broke down and cried. For the first time, I had hope that we were finally going home,” he says. Nzobatinya says that moving forward, Burundians and the world were watching the newly elected president Evariste Ndayishimiye to bring all those languishing in refugee camps back home to rebuild their country. Rodeo Ngagare is a member of the ‘Amatavu Club’ that brings together Burundian youth refugees who mostly rely on sports activities not only for stress relief but also as a unifying factor. He says that the passing of Nkurunziza gives him and his peers faith that President-elect Ndayishimiye will deal with the issue of Burundians who fled the country independently. “What we feared was the possibility of interference from Nkurunziza but now that he is gone, we are hoping that the new President can see the value of reuniting all Burundians,” he says. Need for reassurance However, Ngangare and other Burundians need reassurances before they can consider returning home. This, he says, is based on the beatings, arrests, disappearances and killings that are meted on anyone suspected of being in political opposition by youths affiliated with the ruling party, CNDD/FDD. These same allegations were raised by Burundian refugees in Tanzania who were considering an appeal to the United Nations following a repatriation deal between the two countries. Clarisse Neza, 25 fled to Rwanda in late 2015 after her father was arrested over accusations of being involved with Nkurunziza’s political opponents. Since then, she has dropped out of school and worked as a waitress to sustain herself in Rwanda. She says that she received the news of the passing of President Nkurunziza with mixed reactions. “We have no guarantees that the next President is going to be better. Will he be welcoming of us? Does this mean he is willing to unite all Burundians? I feel like I will fully celebrate when those questions are answered but at least, we now have hope,” she says. In April 2015, Rwanda granted refugee status to the first wave of over 11,000 Burundians who had crossed into the country. The number has since grown. According to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), as of end of March, there were 69,831 Burundian refugees in Rwanda. The above total includes Burundian refugees who fled since April 2015, as well as the smaller number who had sought asylum in Rwanda prior to April 2015. Most Burundian refugees in Rwanda live in Mahama Refugee Camp in Kirehe District. Refugees in numbers According to the Ministry in charge of Emergency Management (MINEMA), Rwanda hosts 149,602 refugees mainly from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundians. Up to 92 per cent of the refugee population are in refugee camps and rely on humanitarian assistance while 8 per cent reside in urban areas, mainly Kigali and Huye. While Congolese make up 52 per cent of the total refugee population in Rwanda, Burundians make up 47 per cent. Of these, children make up 50 per cent of the registered population.
