- Title: BURUNDI : 45,000 RWANDAN REFUGEES LEAVE BURUNDI
- Date: 31st March 1995
- Summary: NGOZI, BURUNDI (MARCH 30, 1995) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 1. SV DAWN ON SIDE OF ROAD EAST OF NGOZI: VARIOUS OF PEOPLE SLEEPING BY SIDE OF ROAD 0.08 2. SV WOMAN WITH INJURED FOOT WHO HAD RUN OVER BY BY LORRY ON ROAD 0.14 3. SV CHILDREN AROUND FIRES/ FOOD BEING COOKED 0.19 4. SV PEOPLE PACKING UP BELONGINGS 0.28 5. SCU UNID
- Embargoed: 15th April 1995 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: NGOZI, BURUNDI
- City:
- Country: Burundi
- Reuters ID: LVA2WSR02Y5CUW2OJ4QYC304GU05
- Story Text: As many as 45,000 Rwandan refugees were on the move in northern Burundi on Friday (March 31), heading for sanctuary in Tanzania.
Most of the refugees are Hutus who are fled Rwanda's civil war last year.
They will not go back for fear of the new Tutsi- dominated army which drove the former Hutu government into exile last July after Hutus massacred up to one million Tutsis.
At dawn, thousands of refugees who had slept along a 40-km (25-mile) stretch of road in Muyinga province picked up babies and meagre belongings and started walking east in thick mist.
The Rwandans decided to leave following more than a week of ethnic unrest in Burundi that killed at least 200 people and a decision by hundreds of European expatriates to pull out of the country.
Refugees said they were fleeing because they feared for their lives and had heard the camps in Tanzania were safe and protected by exiled members of Rwanda's Hutu army which was ousted by the rebel Tutsi-dominated Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) last year.
The United Nation (U.N.) High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) said 1,500 Rwandans who apparently left on foot late on Tuesday (March 28) had already arrived at Kitale camp in eastern Tanzania.
Aid agencies are scrambling to prepare for an influx of up to 100,000 refugees.
At one point, the column of marching Hutus stretched for 35 km (23 miles).
Most of the refugees on the road were from Magara camp which completely emptied after an attack on Monday by gunmen who killed 12 refugees and wounded 22 in Majuri camp.
Tanzania is already bursting with some 750,000 refugees. A similar number of Hutu refugees are in camps in eastern Zaire.
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