Burundi: Long-term IDPs need land security

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^{31 December 2008}

Most of the 100,000 people who remain in IDP sites across the country were displaced in the 1990s and early 2000s by ethnic violence and fighting between the army and rebel groups. The sites are being gradually transformed into villages and local authorities are often reluctant to consider the inhabitants displaced.

In April 2008, the shaky ceasefire between the government and the Party for the Liberation of Hutu People National Forces for Liberation (Palipehutu-FNL) broke, and Palipehutu-FNL attacks in and around Bujumbura killed more than 30 people and caused the temporary displacement of several thousand. In addition, an unknown number of people returned or were expelled from Tanzania, where they had fled from conflict in 1972, and they were housed in temporary accommodation centres as their homes had been occupied.

Most IDPs are struggling to support themselves, and many of their difficulties are shared by the rest of the population in one of the ten least-developed countries in the world. In this context women and children’s enjoyment of rights is often at risk, and sexual violence remains widespread. IDPs have additional problems: those without valid property documents (such as those living in IDP sites with unclear legal status or built on land belonging to someone else) risk being evicted. Single female heads of households especially struggle to raise their family and ensure the basic necessities of life in IDP sites.

The international agencies in Burundi adopted the cluster approach in October 2008, with UNHCR taking the lead protection role. UNHCR has funded and guided the Project of Support for Repatriation and reinsertion of War Affected Persons (PARESI), a government agency providing basic housing and infrastructure for returning refugees and IDPs. Since 2006, the UN Peace Building Commission has also worked with the government to support post-conflict recovery, including for IDPs, but it has had no measurable impact on their lives.

30 April 2009: IDPs and returnees displaced again by heavy rains

Some 3,000 IDPs and returnees had to leave a site at Sabe, close to the capital Bujumbura, as weeks of heavy rains flooded or swept away their makeshift homes. The lack of sanitation facilities aggravated the situation, with rubbish and faeces floating in the stagnant water, and some residents reported waterborne diseases such as diarrhoea and roundworms. The Ministry of National Solidarity, the Evangelist Church and the World Food Programme have distributed relief, but residents described it as inadequate and requested assistance to move to a safer site. The Ministry of National Solidarity said the ministry was planning to move the Sabe residents “soon” to a safer site, but did not give a date. Prior to the flooding, UNHCR indicated that it had no knowledge of the Sabe site residents as a group in need of international humanitarian aid. Most of the residents have settled there for years, and the international agency normally only assists those who have just returned, notably with housing, land and early subsistence money.

The security situation in Burundi improved markedly after the last rebel group in the country laid down its arms at the end of 2008, and no new conflict-induced displacement was reported in 2009. However, up to 100,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) remain in sites in northern and central Burundi. Most of them, displaced in the 1990s or early 2000s following inter-ethnic violence and fighting between the government and rebel groups, have integrated in the neighbouring towns and villages they fled to, and the majority reportedly wish to remain in these sites.

The majority of IDPs do not own their houses and land in the sites, but live on state-owned, private or church-owned property, which has caused disputes with the original owners. Informal transactions take place but often lead to disputes as the same parcel of land can be sold a number of times without being registered. A comprehensive land law has been drafted which should apply to rural areas (until now regulated by customary law) as well as cities, but it is not likely to be enacted before the 2010 elections. (...)

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^{20 October 2009}