Refugees to Burundi risk their lives to escape the conflict in the Democratic Congo

The face of the Congolese refugee, Atosha, remembers the 15th minutes she spent to cross the rapid flow of Rosie Raysa, which separates the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Burundi last February.

This 23 -year -old woman said about her journey in the river, which is about 130 meters long, that she cut the river and she is related to a buoy alongside a young man who pushed him to take her to the other bank of the river, where the Burundian side, adding: “I was terrified and the first time in my life I cross this river, and I had no other option.”

But her feeling of comfort when she reaches the other side of the river, soon turned into suffering, when she learned that her two young sisters – as the first of the first is 10 years and the second 14 years, which she sent first – the current was swept away.

“I stood there and started crying,” said Atosha, one of the tens of thousands of Congolese refugees who resorted to the Keteboc County Football Stadium, which is a few miles away from the border.

risk

The refugees risked their lives to cross into Burundi, to escape the conflict in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, where the M23 rebel group, backed by Rwanda, has made a kidnapper since last January, in a great escalation of the conflict that began a long time ago, whose roots are due to the extensions of the genocide that took place in Rwanda in 1994, the Congo, and the struggle to control the sources of large minerals.

Atwsha explained that on February 14, the Congolese soldiers entered the city of Bokov, to her home in the town of Pavoliro, south of the Congo, and many of them were injured and upon their arrival they caused terror in the town.

According to Atosha, one of the soldiers said to her who had lost his eye during the fighting: “If you can go to Burundi, go today, because the fighting will extend here tonight, which is bad, as people are killed, and women and girls are raped.”

fleeing

When the bullets began to start around the town, the Atosha family was confused about what she should do, and after a few days her father asked her to travel to the border, or about three kilometers east, with her two sisters, with her parents trying to catch them later.

Atosha prepared herself and her two sisters and left without carrying any goods.

“When the bullets started to rise, we no longer have the power to be able to carry a pencil,” said Atosha. He walked as quickly as possible, and joined the fugitive crowds, some of which used bicycles, until they reached the Rosisi River, where Atosha paid 20,000 Kongoli francs (about seven dollars) for a group of young men who help families to cut the river, by swimming, to the other side.

Escalate

About 7,000 people have died, and hundreds of thousands were displaced from their areas of residence as a result of the escalation of violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in recent months.

The United Nations reported that sexual violence and human rights violations are “rampant” near the confrontation lines, as well as looting and destroying the homes of civilians and their commercial stores.

About 65,000 people arrived in Burundi, during the past month, the largest flow of people to this country for decades, and the Sigtebuk Football Stadium, after it was a loud sports stadium, was a refugee cross center pending their transfer to specific locations.

The humanitarian situation

The new wave of refugees has increased the complexity of the humanitarian situation in Burundi, a country with a population of 13 million, and made every effort to provide assistance to Congolese refugees from previous conflicts, in addition to the returnees from the previous Burundi crises, and the internally displaced Purndeians due to disasters.

“It is an irresponsible state of emergency, and this large flow of refugees exceeds our ability to deal with it, which is tired, but there is not enough money to provide assistance to all this number of refugees,” said the head of the “Save the Children” organization in Burundi, who provides humanitarian aid in the sports stadium and other places.

“As a person when you see this situation, all you can do is provide support, and support can be material, and it can also be moral support, but his contributions today are very important.”

Beehive

When journalists from the “Guardian” visited the sports stadium, it was a beehive of activity. There were long lines of refugees who joined their names as refugees, or to get water from the truck, carrying water packages in their hands.

Red Cross officials called for the names through loudspeakers in one of the areas, and they distributed the basic supplies and were a blanket, bucket, carpet, soap, and mosquitoes for every person.

Many have been able to live on the field for weeks without it.

Despite all assistance efforts, the refugees are exhausted, and their psychological condition is often destroyed, and they reached the stadium and found the shelter while they were in distress. Many refugees confirmed that the distribution of food was made once a day and that it was insufficient.

suffering

“People suffer a lot … and in fact, one is a refugee or that he is called a refugee title that is not proud.”, Adding: “I asked our leaders, and the president of our country to find a way to resolve this conflict, because it is sad that people die and others disappear, while families separate from each other.”

Many of those present in the sports stadium lost their family and loved them as a result of the sweeping water currents in the Roussezi River, or they separated at some point during their trip to Burundi.

“I was trying to calm a child crying in a shelter, but at the same time, I was surrounded by more than 12 other children staring at children’s toys that are colorful wooden pilgrims,” ​​said Atosha, who completed her studies a few months ago. On the “Guardian”

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The destruction of 90 camps

A spokeswoman for the Human Rights Council said,

Judith Suminoa and Luka, which was held in Geneva, recently, “The war in the Democratic Congo led to the displacement of 450,000 people and made them homeless after the destruction of 90 camps.”

The rebel group, known as “M23”, began its rapid progress at the beginning of this year, east of the Congo, fighting the Congolese army, and seized two of the largest cities of the region, Goma, the capital of North Kivu province, and Bucafo, the capital of South Kivu province.

This escalation is the worst of its kind in about a decade, in the long -term conflict in the region, and it could have been dragging neighboring countries and leading to a regional war.

This conflict, which has escalated despite the calls for the ceasefire, exacerbated the humanitarian situation in the region.

In Guma alone – whose population has two million people, and it is a human center for those who were displaced from their homes – the fighting resulted in the death of 3000 people, and the medical facilities were crowded with wounded and the hospitals were filled with gunshots and shrapnel.

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Hundreds of children are not accompanied by anyone

The refugee child “Emmanuel” speaks with an employee from the “Save International Childhood” organization. From the source

The Congolese Terminal The Teres (46 years old) paid money to a men to transfer her two children (12 and 14 years old) via the Rosisi River several weeks ago.

She said, “He asked me to take the two children first and then return for me, but I did not see it again after that.”

“I cried, and other people working to help people cross the river told me that I may find my child on the Burundian side of the river, but I have not yet found them,” added Teres, who crossed the river with the help of one of the men.

Emmanuel, 15, was one of the hundreds of children who were not accompanied by anyone, and who arrived in Burundi.

He was detailed for his family amid the chaos that took place when the shooting began in his town, Ghochi Chivdum, south of Boukvo.

His family fled to the hills east of the Republic of the Congo, while he went towards Burundi.

Emmanuel said: “We did not know whether they were dead or alive. We heard the fighters bombing the hills,” and he meant his family.

Then Emmanuel walked with his friends for two days, slept in the forest during the night, was stolen, and watched dead bodies, while her child’s woman was born on the road.

Others managed to reach Burundi with their families, and the former teacher, Safari, fled Gwishi Chivdum with his only child on his shoulder, a quantity of food on his head, while his wife carried a child on her back, another child on her chest, and some clothes on her head.

He walked about two hours to cross the river, and Safari said: “When I saw all the families cross the river, a divine ability to do so helped me, and our hearts became comfortable.”

Some refugees volunteered tasks to help each other, including cooking and cutting firewood, while the former teacher, Safari, teaches children to write.

. 7,000 people died, while hundreds of thousands of their areas of residence were displaced as a result of the escalation of violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

. 65,000 people arrived in Burundi, last month, the largest flow of people to this country for decades.