Photo used for representational purposes. Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) Prime Minister Judith Suminwa arrives to attend the 38th African Union (AU) Summit, where leaders will elect a new head of the AU Commission, at the AU Headquarters in Addis Ababa on February 15, 2025. Photo by Amanuel Sileshi / AFP.
Geneva: Around 42,000 people have fled the conflict raging in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and crossed into Burundi in the past two weeks, the United Nations said Friday.
Rwandan-backed M23 fighters have made big gains in the eastern DR Congo, seizing the cities of Goma and Bukavu and stoking fears of a regional conflagration.
The UN warned Wednesday that the M23 "continues to advance towards other strategic areas" in the eastern Congolese provinces of North and South Kivu.
The UN refugee agency UNHCR had expected the violence to fuel an exodus to Burundi, making plans to help up to 58,000 people over three months, said Brigitte Mukanga-Eno, agency's representative in the country.
But "just in first two weeks, we have received ... around 42,000 people already seeking asylum", she told reporters in Geneva, via video-link from Burundi's largest city Bujumbura.
She said that more than 36,000 people had crossed the Rusizi river, near Rugombo, while another 6,000 had crossed directly to a transit centre close to Bujumbura.
"Last week on Tuesday, we had more than 9,000 people who crossed in one day," Mukanga-Eno said.
The numbers were likely to increase as hostilities in DRC advance towards the town of Uvira, near the main official border crossing with Burundi, she said.
Another 13,000 people have meanwhile fled across to Uganda and some 2,000 more have gone to other neighbouring countries since the start of January, UNHCR said.
The agency welcomed the Burundian government's decision to grant refugee status to those arriving, ensuring swift access to protection and aid.
'Overwhelmed'
But Mukanga-Eno said it was important to scale up assistance immediately and move the refugees away from the border area due to "security concerns".
UNHCR said refugees would be transferred in the next few days to the Musenyi refugee site in southeastern Burundi, which has a capacity for 10,000 people, while the government planned to allocate land for additional sites.
Mukanga-Eno warned there was "an urgent need for shelter, food and latrines as well as relocation of the new arrivals to other sites to address overcrowding".
In addition, she said "several cases of measles have been confirmed, with a real risk of the disease spreading given the growing numbers in the area".
"Everyone is overwhelmed."
The UNHCR also noted "a worryingly high number of children among the new arrivals, many of them unaccompanied or separated from their families while fleeing".
The NGO Save the Children also highlighted the large number of children arriving in Burundi alone and in bad shape, also warning that at least four children had died upon arrival due to illness.
Many children are "arriving hungry, exhausted and traumatised", Maggie Korde, Save the Children's country director in Rwanda and Burundi, said in a statement.
"All have been forced to flee for their lives. Many have witnessed violence. Some have been injured, or lost parents and loved ones," she said.
UNHCR is appealing for $40.4 million to strengthen preparedness and deliver life-saving protection and assistance to 275,000 internally displaced people in the DRC, and to help a potential influx of up to 258,000 refugees arriving in neighbouring countries.
