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Displacement and Humanitarian Assistance

Many of the people of Bujumbura rural have been forced to flee their homes repeatedly during this period of intensified combat. In February and March, 25,000 to 30,000 civilians from Kabezi became the group most recently displaced. Unable to cultivate their fields, dependent on uncertain deliveries of food aid, and deprived of regular medical assistance, many people suffer from malnutrition and illness. Many sleep outside, drenched every day and night by the heavy rains of the rainy season. The displaced who seek shelter with relatives or friends impose burdens on their hosts who share their meager food supply and sometimes sleep twenty-five or thirty adults in a single room.⁵⁸