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Last Burundians from 1972 exodus leave Tanzania
30 Oct 2009 13:51:15 GMT
Source: Reuters
* UN helps last 400 Burundians from 1972 exodus return home * 36,000 more who entered in 1993 remain in one camp

GENEVA, Oct 30 (Reuters) - The last 400 of more than 200,000 Burundians who fled to Tanzania 37 years ago travelled home on Friday, ending one of the longest-running refugee sagas in the world, the U.N. refugee agency said on Friday.

The Burundians arrived in 1972, fleeing ethnic conflict at home. While many have returned under a U.N.-backed voluntary repatriation programme, some 29,000 were naturalised in Tanzania and 133,000 citizenship applications are still pending there.

Andrej Mahecic, a spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told journalists in Geneva that the group would return home from the same Tanzanian railway station where they arrived in 1972.

In addition to the 1972 wave, there was also a large movement of Burundian refugees in 1993 to Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Uganda.

Mahecic said 36,000 Burundians from that wave remain in a camp in northwest Tanzania, but other sites in Tanzania have shut.

In total, he said, more than 430,000 Burundians who sought refuge in Tanzania after various eruptions of violence have now returned home as a result of "the gradual return of peace". (Reporting by Laura MacInnis; Editing by Kevin Liffey)




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Last updated:Fri Oct 30 13:53:48 2009