Despite improvements, Burundi refugees still at risk

Despite some progress, the nearly yearlong Burundian refugee crisis — in which more than 250,000 people have fled the country’s ongoing political instability — continues to threaten to overwhelm the East African region amid scant signs the situation will improve soon.

The humanitarian situation looked set to deteriorate further when Rwanda threatened last month to try to transfer the nearly 74,000 Burundians seeking shelter there to third-party nations, including the United States, Canada and Australia. While Rwanda has not yet followed through on its threat — nor is it likely it would even be able to — the warning underscored just how tenuous the gains in assisting Burundi’s refugees have been and how easily such gains can be undone.

The crisis began in April 2015 when Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza announced he would stand for a third term, even though the constitution allows for only two. The announcement spooked a country that has seen frequent politically motivated violence, and less than two months after Nkurunziza’s declaration, more than 80,000 people had spilled out of the tiny East African nation into neighboring Tanzania, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Some even traveled as far as Uganda and Zambia.