AFP
GENEVA — The final group of Burundians who fled ethnic violence that left 200,000 dead nearly 40 years ago is returning home, marking an end to one of the most prolonged refugee problems, the UNHCR said Friday.
"Today we reach an important milestone in ending one of the longest-running refugee sagas in the world with the return to their homeland of 400 Burundians who fled to Tanzania in 1972," said Andrej Mahecic, spokesman of the UN refugee agency.
"They are to travel by rail from the same train station where they arrived 37 years ago when they fled the eruption of ethnic violence which claimed the lives of an estimated 200,000 Burundian civilians," he added.
Around 53,500 other Burundians who fled during the 1972 crisis have also returned home from Tanzania since March 2008.
Mahecic explained that "an especially important element on the return of the 1972 Burundians is the issue of land.
"Through mediating with the communities, many of them have been able to repossess their land," he said.
For those who have no land to return to, UN agencies are also helping to rehouse them in specially constructed villages.
Tanzania also hosts Burundians who fled their country during another spurt of violence in 1993, with some 36,000 refugees still remaining in one camp in Tanzania.
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