She was so tiny and frail with skin so delicate it could have melted in the scorching sun rays of the afternoon; the nape of her neck had several tiny boils ripe to bust and they must have been hurting for she was crying in a painful little voice; a cry of a five-day old baby in a refugee camp. 

Baby Diera Irankunda Mahama was born on Thursday April 23, a day after her 24-year old mother, Minani Jeanine, arrived, along thousands of other Burundian refugees in the newly established Mahama camp located in Kirehe district, in Rwanda’s Eastern Province.

At just 24, Irakunda is already a mother of four other children, her first born came at the age of 15, something reportedly not uncommon in Burundi; but her fifth born almost arrived in an uncommon fashion, on a bus from Nyanza District in Southern Province to Kirehe.

"My husband was frantic throughout the journey as I turned restlessly in my seat, although the buses used to relocate us were comfortable, I experienced pangs in my lower body and was worried I could go into labour,” she recalls.

By divine providence, she went into labour the next day, in a tent serving as the health facility set-up by the American Refugee Council (ARC) and with help from medical volunteers deployed in the camp; Minani gave birth to a baby girl.

"The doctor insisted we name the girl after the camp, I agreed, so it’ll be her middle name; Diera ‘Mahama’ Irakunda,” said the mother.

For little Mahama, her birthday history is now filed and sealed; born April 23, 2015 in Mahama sector, Kirehe District, Eastern Province, Rwanda, over 120miles from Burundi.

On her 10th birthday, the pre-teen girl, then back to her maiden village in Burundi, God willing, will want to know the details behind her middle name and the circumstances that led to it.

It’s a question the writer asked the mother; she was quiet for thirty seconds as she pondered the answer but as she opened her mouth to respond, baby Mahama cried in her little soft voice that seemed to be begging the leaders of East Africa to take her back home, to her little nest that the father had bought ahead of her birth.

"When we ran, we didn’t carry anything, now we are here, at the mercy of everyone,” she said. In Rwanda, Minani and her brood are in the safe hands of Rwandans, many of whom, only a couple of decades ago were in refugee camps themselves.

Right to play

Baby Mahama is only part of thousands of children whose circumstances have been altered by factors extremely out of their control.

On Wednesday April 29, Disaster Management and Refugee Affairs Minister, Seraphine Mukantabana toured the camp with UNCHR representative Saber Azam, a former refugee himself, who says he fled his country Afghanistan to Switzerland when he was a little boy.

The minister and the UN official were in the camp to assess the needs of the refugees, especially the children below 18, who it was reported accounted for over 65 per cent of the camp’s population.

"These are children whose right to play, to school and stay home with their parents has been brutally halted, it’s our responsibility to try and restore those rights no matter the circumstances they currently find themselves in,” said a child care specialist with Plan International, the agency charged with children welfare in the camp.

Children will always be children; as their distraught mothers ran through the camp to find water, food and firewood, they were kicking soccer balls in yet to be occupied spaces of the camp, There were several balls, most of them, donated by the humanitarian agencies.

"With over 5000 children, you have to ensure their right to play because what has happened is not their fault and they deserve to be happy,” said the Plan International child specialist.

There are other agencies in the camp including World Vision International whose role in the camp-site is to ensure hygiene of everyone by washing their hands to avoid potential outbreaks of diseases.

Staying safe

The Mahama campsite is over 50 hectares, part of a large chunk of government land located about five kilometers from Rwanda’s border with Tanzania. 

When Burundians started fleeing their country around early March, they entered Rwanda through various porous border points where they assembled; many of those assembly points, with a capacity of less than 500 people were quite overwhelmed by numbers.

On April 24, the government of Rwanda granted the displaced Burundians whose number was above 11000, full refugee status and provided land in Mahama to relocate them; but the land was bushy and full of thorny undergrowth.

April 25 was the last Saturday of the month and as the national practice is, citizens undertake Umuganda (general cleaning). Led by Jacqueline Murekatete, the Kirehe vice mayor, locals poured on the Mahama grounds with slashers and hoes to clear the grounds.

"In the over 20 years that I have worked with refugees, Mahama has set the record of being set up in the fastest time, less than a week,” said UNHCR’s Azam, praising the efficiency and organisation of Rwandan leadership.

By Wednesday afternoon, last week, the camp had about 8,000 resettled refugees including 80 unaccompanied minors, about 1,500 more people arrived that evening and by end of next week, they numbered over 20,000. 

Initially, the plan was for the camp to host 25,000 people, according to David Muyambi, a field official with the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA), but with no sign of the situation in Burundi relenting, the officials are looking at a new maximum of 50,000 people.

With the majority of these numbers being children, the priority of the relief providers is to ensure their safety in the camps and provision of all the basic needs they need; health, food and education.

Seated on the veranda of his tent, his new home for the foreseeable future was Antoine, a 14-year old boy; he seemed lost in thought and on interviewing him, the boy revealed that he had a fever. Fortunately, he had received some medication from caregivers.

Another boy, Muzabivamu Rahim, aged 13, was selling banana fingers and other supplies under the shade of a tree with low lying branches. One of the women in the camp, noticing the business opportunity, used her money to buy the supplies. "We were doing our final term examinations when we left, I don’t know what will happen,” said the primary three pupil.

There are plans to integrate the kids into the Rwandan education system but given that the kids belong to a different education system, the move would require a lengthy orientation and assessment process. As for baby Mahama, she’s quiet for now, suckling from her mum’s breast as she awaits a response from EAC leaders.