09/28/2004

This group of 360 Congolese refugees of the Banyamulenge community had fled military confrontation in Bukavu in June of this year and settled in the transit facility of Gatumba, in Burundi, a few kilometers from the border. They are some of the survivors of the attack on the Gatumba transit facility on the night of August 13, where more than 160 people were killed. After the massacre, some families were resettled to another site while hundreds of others were hosted in a nearby school. Since the Burundian school year started today, the school premises had to be vacated and the refugees, who also had the option to be resettled to Muaro, located some 60 kms from the border inside Burundi, decided to return home instead.