Since last January, the Burundian authorities have reported the arrival of about 9,000 Congolese refugees in the provinces 200 km south of Bujumbura, fleeing the clashes between rebels Mai Mai and the Congolese armed forces.
In the provinces of Muyinga, Ruyigi, Cibitoke and Bujumbura, health and nutritional services are below humanitarian standards: insufficient healthcare staff and hospital units, depletion of Zero hunger and medical supplies, inadequate equipment, limited ability to respond to gender-based violence. In coordination with the activities carried out by UNHCR, the intervention allows the installation of two mobile clinics in the transit center of Gitara - near the place of arrival of the asylum seekers - and of three teams each formed by a doctor, four nurses and an ambulance in the transit centers of Ruyigi, Songore and Mukonbe, to ensure medical assistance, nutritional management and psychosocial support for victims of gender-based violence, up to the moment of their transfer to refugee camps. Medical screening is provided to all asylum-seekers upon arrival, nutritional screening for all children under 5 and pregnant or lactating women, as well as the distribution of kits containing antiretroviral drugs, pregnancy tests and medication for sexually transmitted diseases to victims of violence.