This Preliminary Emergency Appeal seeks CHF 674,731 in cash, kind, or services to support the Burundi Red Cross (BRC) to assist 14,643 beneficiaries (or 2,615 households) for 3 months. This operation will be completed by February 2013. An emergency appeal will be issued within one month.
CHF 100,000 from the IFRC’s Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF) has been allocated to assist in starting up the operation.
Since 2002, over 525,000 Burundians have voluntary returned home. More than 94,000 Burundians are still refugees in neighboring countries, including in Tanzania. In 2011, the Government of Tanzania decided to close Mtabila Camp and subsequently, to repatriate the refugees by the end of 2012.
As a result, a cessation clause has been invoked for roughly 35,000 refugees who are no longer classified with official refugee status as of 1 August 2012. On 8 October 2012, the governments of Burundi and Tanzania, UNHCR, partners and donors met and agreed to repatriate the “former” Burundian refugees. Burundian Refugees waiting to be assisted at the transit centres (Photo BRC)
As of 14 November, the number of such returnees was 7,332 people. Of these, 19% are women, 19% are men and 61% are children. People with special needs represent 3% of the returnees.
Based on the situation, this Emergency Appeal responds to a request from the Burundi Red Cross, and focuses on providing support to take an appropriate and timely response in delivering assistance and relief in the following sectors: reception and orientation; psychosocial support; Restoring Family Links (RFL); emergency shelter; emergency health and water, sanitation and hygiene.
This operation will prioritise ongoing and detailed assessments of the needs of the returnees as the situation is fluid and assistance from other stakeholders is still being discussed. BRC will coordinate with other stakeholders and the findings of assessments and monitoring will be incorporated into a subsequent Emergency Appeal, which will be launched one month after this Preliminary Emergency Appeal.