Nyarugusu refugee camp ( Kambi ya wakimbizi ya Nyarugusu msaka family, in Swahili) is one of the largest and best-known refugee camps of the 21st century, with around 150,000 refugees. [1] [2]
Nyarugusu refugee camp ( Kambi ya wakimbizi ya Nyarugusu msaka family, in Swahili) is one of the largest and best-known refugee camps of the 21st century, with around 150,000 refugees. [1] [2]
Nyarugusu refugee camp is located in the Kasulu District, western province of Kigoma Region, Tanzania, about 150 km east of Lake Tanganyika. [3] [2]
Nyarugusu refugee camp was created by the UNHCR and the Tanzanian government in November 1996 [2] [4] after an estimated 150,000 Congolese refugees from the eastern Sud-Kivu region of the DRC crossed the border into Tanzania escaping civil war. Many Congolese refugees remained in the camp for decades, although the population of the camp was reducing before 2015. However, in 2015 over 110,000 Burundian refugees arrived in Tanzania to escape riots and civil unrest in Burundi. These refugees went to Nyarugusu until the Tanzanian government allowed Burundian refugees to go to other camps. Approximately 65,000 Burundian refugees remain at Nyarugusu, while 55,000 are at Nduta refugee camp, and another 19,000 are at Mtendeli refugee camp. [5] The camp is Sitting 40 kilometers away from the nearest town, Kasulu, and covers 1,200 hectares of land. [6]
A refugee camp is a temporary settlement built to receive refugees and people in refugee-like situations. Refugee camps usually accommodate displaced people who have fled their home country, but camps are also made for internally displaced people. Usually, refugees seek asylum after they have escaped war in their home countries, but some camps also house environmental and economic migrants. Camps with over a hundred thousand people are common, but as of 2012, the average-sized camp housed around 11,400. They are usually built and run by a government, the United Nations, international organizations, or non-governmental organization. Unofficial refugee camps, such as Idomeni in Greece or the Calais jungle in France, are where refugees are largely left without the support of governments or international organizations.
Kigoma Region is one of Tanzania's 31 administrative regions, with the city of Kigoma as the reigonal capital. Kigoma Region borders Kagera Region, Geita Region, Katavi Region, Tabora Region, DRC and Burundi According to the 2012 national census, the region had a population of 2,127,930, which was higher than the pre-census projection of 1,971,332. For 2002–2012, the region's 2.4 percent average annual population growth rate was tied for the fourteenth highest in the country. It was also the sixteenth most densely populated region with 57 people per square kilometer. With a size of 45,066 square kilometres (17,400 sq mi), the region is slightly smaller than Estonia.
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Kasulu District is one of the 8 districts of Kigoma Region, Tanzania. The Kasulu District is the rural district council to the Kasulu Town Council which separated from the Kasulu District Council in 2011. It is bordered to the north by Burundi, to the east by Kibondo District, to the south by Uvinza District, to the west by Kigoma District and to the northwest by Buhigwe District. The district consists of lowland forest, and highland grasslands.
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The issue of human rights in Tanzania, a nation with a 2012 population of 44,928,923, is complex. In its 2013 Freedom in the World report, Freedom House declared the country "Partly Free".
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Nduta Refugee Camp is a refugee camp situated in the north-western region of Tanzania. It was established in 2015 to provide shelter and support to Burundian refugees who had fled their country due to political instability and violence. Located in the Kibondo District of the Kigoma Region, Nduta Refugee Camp is one of the three refugee camps in the area that currently house a population of over 320,000 refugees from Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
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Hodan Addou is a Somalian international civil servant who has been engaged with the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and its successor, UN Women in developing policies for women and women's empowerment since 1992. She has been a programme officer in Kenya; gender and conflict advisor in Burundi; the Regional Peace and Security Adviser for East, Central and Southern Africa; and Country Programme Director in Sudan, Zimbabwe, and Uganda. She is presently the Country Representative for UN Women in Tanzania.