More than 63,000 people fleeing conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo have poured into neighboring Burundi in recent weeks, overwhelming a makeshift refugee camp where thousands are now stranded in dire conditions, the United Nations said Friday.
An estimated 45,000 displaced people are sheltering in an overcrowded open-air stadium in Rugombo, near the Congolese border, as fighting intensifies between the Congolese army and the M23 rebel group.
“The situation is absolutely dire. Conditions are extremely harsh,” said Faith Kasina, a spokesperson for the UN refugee agency covering East Africa and the Great Lakes region.
“The stadium is literally bursting at its seams, and there is no additional space for shelter,” she told reporters in Geneva.
Sanitary conditions in the camp are deteriorating, with only a handful of latrines serving tens of thousands of people. Many families have been forced to sleep in open fields, Kasina said, warning that aid efforts are struggling to keep pace with the rapidly growing crisis.
“Numbers keep swelling, and it’s a race against time to try and save lives,” she said.
Among the displaced are large numbers of unaccompanied children who have been separated from their families, according to UNHCR.
Efforts to relocate refugees to Musenyi, a designated refugee site in southern Burundi, have been hampered by logistical challenges. The site, which has capacity for 10,000 people, is already 60% full. The UN has appealed for $40.4 million in emergency aid to assist an anticipated influx of up to 258,000 refugees across Burundi, Tanzania, and Zambia.
The conflict in eastern Congo has escalated dramatically in recent months, marking the most serious flare-up in over a decade. The violence stems from long-standing tensions linked to the aftermath of Rwanda’s 1994 genocide and competition over Congo’s vast mineral resources.
The Congolese government, along with the UN and Western allies, accuses Rwanda of backing M23 with weapons and troops. Kigali denies the allegations, saying it is acting in self-defense against armed Hutu militias it claims are fighting alongside the Congolese military.
Burundi, which has had a military presence in eastern Congo for years, has also deployed troops to fight M23.