Nyarugusu refugee camp ( ''Kambi ya wakimbizi ya Nyarugusu msaka family'', in

Swahili Swahili may refer to: * Swahili language, a Bantu language officially used in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda and widely spoken in the African Great Lakes. * Swahili people, an ethnic group in East Africa. * Swahili culture, the culture of the Swahili p ...

) is one of the largest and best-known

refugee camp A refugee camp is a temporary Human settlement, settlement built to receive refugees and people in refugee-like situations. Refugee camps usually accommodate displaced people who have fled their home country, but camps are also made for in ...

s of the 21st century, with around 150,000 refugees.

Location

VOA Reporter Eddie Rwema visits Nyarugusu Refugee Camp in Tanzania

Nyarugusu refugee camp is located in the

Kasulu District Kasulu District is one of the 8 districts of Kigoma Region, Tanzania. The Kasulu District is the rural district council to the Kasulu Town Council which separated from the Kasulu District Council in 2011. It is bordered to the north by Burun ...

, western province of

Kigoma Region Kigoma Region (''Mkoa wa Kigoma'' in Swahili language, Swahili) is one of Tanzania's 31 administrative Regions of Tanzania, regions, with the city of Kigoma as the regional capital. Kigoma Region borders Kagera Region, Geita Region, Katavi Regio ...

Tanzania Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to t ...

, about 150 km east of

Lake Tanganyika Lake Tanganyika ( ; ) is an African Great Lakes, African Great Lake. It is the world's List of lakes by volume, second-largest freshwater lake by volume and the List of lakes by depth, second deepest, in both cases after Lake Baikal in Siberia. ...

.
Refugees.org site

Background

Nyarugusu refugee camp was created by the

UNHCR The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is a United Nations agency mandated to aid and Humanitarian protection, protect refugees, Internally displaced person, forcibly displaced communities, and Statelessness, s ...

and the Tanzanian government in November 1996 after an estimated 150,000 Congolese

refugees A refugee, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), is a person "forced to flee their own country and seek safety in another country. They are unable to return to their own country because of feared persecution as ...

from the eastern

Sud-Kivu South Kivu (; ) is one of 26 provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Its capital is Bukavu. Located within the East African Rift's western branch Albertine Rift, it is bordered to the east by Lake Kivu, Rwanda, Burundi, and Tanzania ...

region of the

DRC The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), also known as the DR Congo, Congo-Kinshasa, or simply the Congo (the last ambiguously also referring to the neighbouring Republic of the Congo), is a country in Central Africa. By land area, it is t ...

crossed the border into

escaping

civil war A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

. Many Congolese refugees remained in the camp for decades, although the population of the camp was reducing before 2015. However, in 2015 over 110,000 Burundian refugees arrived in Tanzania to escape riots and civil unrest in

Burundi Burundi, officially the Republic of Burundi, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is located in the Great Rift Valley at the junction between the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa, with a population of over 14 million peop ...

. These refugees went to Nyarugusu until the Tanzanian government allowed Burundian refugees to go to other camps. Approximately 65,000 Burundian refugees remain at Nyarugusu, while 55,000 are at Nduta refugee camp, and another 19,000 are at Mtendeli refugee camp. The camp is Sitting 40 kilometers away from the nearest town, Kasulu, and covers 1,200 hectares of land.

Services

Education Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education als ...

, there are 12 primary schools and 4 secondary schools that offer education to Congolese, 8 primary schools, and 2 secondary schools that educate the Burundian population. *

Health Health has a variety of definitions, which have been used for different purposes over time. In general, it refers to physical and emotional well-being, especially that associated with normal functioning of the human body, absent of disease, p ...

, Nyarugusu refugee camp has 2 health centers, 5 health posts, and 2 community-based rehabilitation centers. * Skill Skills, there are 3 youth centers, 2 women's centers, and a multipurpose vocational training center that offers skills to the refugees both from Congo and Burundi. *

Security Security is protection from, or resilience against, potential harm (or other unwanted coercion). Beneficiaries (technically referents) of security may be persons and social groups, objects and institutions, ecosystems, or any other entity or ...

, the camp has 2 police posts.

References

{{coord, 4.2281, S, 30.3835, E, source:wikidata, display=title Refugee camps in Tanzania 1990s establishments in Tanzania Populated places established in the 1990s Populated places in Tanzania Populated places in Tanzania by region

Location

Background

Services

See also

References