Rwanda is hosting more than 20,000 Burundians who have fled their country this week, amid protests against President Pierre Nkurunziza running for a third term.
President Pierre Nkurunziza was nominated to stand again by his ruling CNDD-FDD party.
Furious at what they said was a breach of the constitution and of the Arusha peace accord that ended the civil war, protesters took to the streets of Bujumbura and clashed with police.
On Friday this week three people, including two policemen, were killed and several people wounded in a grenade attack in Burundi ‘s capital Bujumbura late Friday.
According to security officials the deaths came in an attack in the Kamenge district of Bujumbura, which has been rocked by protests at the president’s bid to seek a third term in office.
Meanwhile the UN has voiced alarm over the deadly crackdown on protests warning that freedom of expression in the country was seriously under threat.
Thousands of people have crossed from Burundi into neighbouring Rwanda over the past week, fleeing violence reportedly targeting rural areas as protests grip the capital, Bujumbura, over the president’s decision to stand for a third term in June’s presidential elections.
The reception camps manager in rwanda Karangwa Azarie says the center where refugees are coming to cannot hold such a large number of refugees. Azarie adds that in a day the camp can receive 3,000 .
Some of the refugees living at the camp talk about their challenges. Some accuse unknown armed men of taking all their belongings leaving them with nothing.
Meanwhile, most of the Burundi refugees wait to be transferred to another camp, where an uncertain future awaits them.
The UNHCR’s two main reception centres near the border have been completely overwhelmed, Pomeroy said, prompting the agency to move up to 1,500 Burundians a day to a new refugee camp in Mahama, in south-east Rwanda.
