Over 63,000 Flee Congo Crisis, Flood Burundi in Largest Refugee Wave in Decades – UN Raises Alarm
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!GENEVA – The ongoing violent clashes between the Congolese army and M23 rebels have triggered a massive humanitarian crisis, with over 63,000 refugees pouring into Burundi — the largest influx the country has seen in decades, according to the United Nations.
At the heart of the chaos, about 45,000 displaced people are cramped inside an open-air stadium in Rugombo, not far from the Congo-Burundi border. But the situation there is nothing short of catastrophic, the UN warned on Friday.
“The stadium is literally bursting at its seams,” said Faith Kasina, UNHCR’s regional spokesperson for East and Horn of Africa and Great Lakes. “There’s no more space to set up even temporary shelter, and the sanitary conditions are alarming.”
With just 10 to 15 latrine stalls for tens of thousands of people, families are being forced to sleep in open fields under harsh conditions, as the flow of refugees shows no sign of slowing down.
“It’s a race against time to save lives,” Kasina stressed, adding that aid supplies are already running dangerously low, even as the number of vulnerable arrivals, including unaccompanied children, continues to grow.
The UN had earlier announced plans to relocate some refugees from Rugombo Stadium to the Musenyi refugee sitein southern Burundi, but the process is proving difficult. Moving people takes between six to eight hours per trip, and Musenyi itself is already 60% full.
In response to the deepening crisis, the UN is appealing for $40.4 million in emergency funding to provide lifesaving support across Burundi, Tanzania, and Zambia, where further refugee inflows are expected. The total number of people displaced across the region could hit 258,000, the UN warned.
Root Cause – Eastern Congo’s Endless War
This latest crisis stems from the M23 rebel group’s advance — the most serious escalation in eastern Congo in over a decade. The conflict itself is a messy legacy of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, which spilled over into Congo, fueling cycles of violence over land, ethnicity, and control of the region’s rich mineral wealth.
The Congolese government, the UN, and Western powers have repeatedly accused Rwanda of backing M23, supplying arms and troops to the rebel group. Rwanda denies the claims, insisting it’s merely defending itself from Hutu militias it accuses of working alongside the Congolese army.
Meanwhile, Burundi — already involved in eastern Congo for years to track down its own rebel threats — has also recently joined the fight against M23.
As the conflict rages and the humanitarian crisis worsens, the world watches — but for the tens of thousands already displaced, survival is the only focus.
(Reporting by Olivia Le Poidevin; Editing by Miranda Murray and William Maclean)
