Internal Displacement: Global Overview of Trends and Developments in 2009 - Burundi

Some 100,000 people still live in a number of IDP sites in the north and centre of Burundi. They were displaced by ethnic violence and civil strife which broke out after the 1993 coup and the fighting between the government and rebel groups which followed. The security situation improved after the last rebel group in the country laid down its arms in 2008, and no new conflict-induced displacement was reported in 2009. Most IDPs are struggling to support themselves, and many of their difficulties are shared by the rest of the population in one of the ten least-developed countries in the world. The rights of women and children are often at risk, and sexual violence remains widespread.

Most IDPs reportedly have no intention of returning to their place of origin, mostly because of the better economic opportunities around the sites, rather than for security reasons. Many of the sites are gradually becoming permanent villages. The government has, with international support, integrated vulnerable members of the host community and landless returnees into some existing sites now called "peace villages".

The majority of IDPs do not own their houses and land in the sites, but live on state-owned, private or church-owned property, which has caused disputes with the original owners. At the same time, an estimated 70 per cent of IDPs still have access to their original farming land.

In 2009 the ministry in charge of supporting the reintegration of IDPs and returnees drafted the National Strategy of Socio-Economic Reintegration for People Affected by Conflict.

Burundi has ratified the Great Lakes Pact as well as signing the Kampala Convention in 2009.