Members of the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) have promised to do their best to ensure calm returns to Burundi to end the refugee crisis.

The regional legislators made the pledge, on Tuesday, while touring Mahama Refugee Camp in Kirehe District.

The MPs are part of EALA’s goodwill mission on a tour to appraise the humanitarian situation on the ground and advise the House on how to proceed with finding a lasting solution to the political impasse in Burundi.

Video: EAC MPs visit Burundian refugees at Mahama camp. Source: The New Times/YouTube

MP Celestin Kabahizi (Rwanda) said: "What we have seen will help us make recommendations to the House. We need the situation [in Burundi] to end. This is not the living condition that people need to be in. We’ll not spare any effort through the legislative process to have a solution to this problem.”

The lawmakers arrived at the vast camp at 11:40am amid downpour.

They interacted with the refugees, as well as observed the relief operation being conducted by various aid agencies and the government.

MP Twaha Issa Taslima (Tanzania) said what is going on in Burundi is disturbing.

"These are not times to be having people fleeing their country. It is a time when the region should be focused on development. Development effort is now being taken back by issues such as these,” he said.

"But I would like to use this opportunity to express my gratitude to international aid agencies, the Government of Rwanda and, especially the local government, for they have done a great job in getting this camp fitted with appropriate infrastructure such as tents.”

Taslima stressed that they would present the issue to EALA for a solution to be found as soon as possible.

"We want a solution in the shortest time possible. Burundians need to go back home and carry on with their electoral process, and more especially their daily life as they work for their own development,” Taslima added.

In the camp, the playfulness of children is overshadowed by signs of suffering and hopelessness.

Jocelyn Buheje, 36, a mother with an ill child, was waiting in queue in front of a pharmacy run by the American Refugee Committee (ARC). Her sickly baby was suffering from diarrhoea.

"We come here as early as possible in the morning to line up and hope to get medical help. But we wait for long and go back without getting help. Then we come back again the next day,” she said.

Emmanuel Mukurarinda, 30, a psychiatric patient, said the side effects of his medication were unbearable due to life in the camp.

He requested people with his condition be transferred to Ndera Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital in Kigali.

"We wish we could be given transfer to get better care. We need enough food. We really get so hungry after taking our drugs. Being treated here is a problem,” Mukurarinda said.

Relief as camp gets more water

Meanwhile, the government and relief agencies were relieved on Tuesday as the vast camp finally saw the first water pipes start releasing water.

In the past, the camp was being supplied by truck loads which would not bring in enough regardless of the effort put in ensuring that water was delivered.

"For a long time, we didn’t have enough water in the camp. We were using trucks to transport water. Trucks would sometimes break down along the way and cause shortages and we would give at least nine litres per person, each day. But now we can give maximum 20 litres per person, every day,” said Antoine Ruvebana, the permanent secretary at Ministry of Disaster Management and Refugee Affairs (MIDIMAR).

"If it goes down, it is at least 15 litres per person per day. Earlier, in the past two to three weeks, because vehicles would break down, and because of the poor state of the road, we would only provide nine litres of water per person per day.”

Ruvebana said the Water and Sanitation Corporation Limited (WASAC) was commissioned to install water pipes leading up to the camps. The first tap was inaugurated on Tuesday and more taps would be opened progressively.

"It is an important achievement to have a permanent source of water in this camp so that people have enough water 24 hours. This will further help in our effort to prevent incidences of an epidemic such as cholera or any other.”

Inside the camp, World Vision Rwanda is largely charged with supplying water. They, too, are working to improve storage and water distribution networks in the camp as well as sanitation and hygiene.

A total of 29, 117 Burundian refugees were in the country by Tuesday, including 14, 854 children, according to latest MIDIMAR figures. Mahama camp alone hosts 23,791 refugees.

Burundian MPs touched

The legislators, who were visiting the camps for the first time, appeared moved. MP Hafsa Mossi, the chairperson of Burundi’s EALA Chapter, broke down in the camp while addressing a section of the refugees. Her compatriot, Dr Martin Nduwimana, however, managed to "express the compassion” he felt.

"We are deeply touched by what we have seen here. We all wish, together, all the East African Community countries, that the crisis ends. We wish to reassure you, we support you, as Burundians but also as east Africans,” he said.

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