Refugees from Burundi are being forcibly evicted from camps as Tanzania destroys their homes and churches, pushing them to return, often after years in exile.
Burundi’s Interior Minister Leonidas Ndaruzaniye said this week that more than 100,000 of its citizens would be repatriated by June under a deal with Tanzania, according to local media.
There were an estimated 142,000 Burundians in two camps as of late 2025, according to the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), having fled years of civil war, political repression and entrenched poverty in their small country in the Great Lakes region of Africa.
Refugees have told AFP they are being forced out by violence, with Tanzanian security forces overseeing the destruction of their homes in the camps at Nduta and Nyarugusu.
“They started destroying our houses in early January,” said Gerard, a 33-year-old former nurse, who lived in Nduta and like others in the camp gave only his first name for fear of reprisals.
“They come with large tree trunks… to break the walls of our adobe brick houses. We can’t do anything because the police are shooting at us if we try to resist,” he told AFP by phone.
Entire areas, including churches, have been destroyed, with schools and hospitals closed, according to several refugees, who also said they were prevented from leaving their homes to farm.
“It is 100 percent coercion, and in that way, very illegal,” Stephanie Schwartz, a researcher at the London School of Economics, told AFP.
UN voices ‘concern‘
Several refugees told AFP they were shocked at the lack of intervention by UNHCR. In a statement to AFP, UNHCR said it “has observed and expressed serious concern over actions taken by Tanzanian authorities in the refugee camps that have put significant pressure on Burundian refugees to sign up for repatriation.”
Jackson, 41, who lived in Nyarugusu, said the Tanzanian authorities were using Congolese refugees from a neighbouring part of the camp to carry out the demolitions.
“The agent of the ministry of internal affairs who supervises the operation knocks on the doors and tells the owners to leave immediately with their belongings. If you hang around, the (Congolese) don’t hesitate to attack your house,” Jackson told AFP.
Burundi and Tanzania initially signed an agreement in December to facilitate the return of up to 3,000 people per week, UNHCR said, and some 28,000 have gone back so far this year.
Tanzanian officials did not respond to multiple attempts to reach them for comment.
A senior Burundian official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP that the country was now a “haven of peace” and those speaking of forced repatriation were “liars”.
“The refugees are returning because there is peace,” the official said.
“The Tanzanians are only destroying the homes of those who have elected for repatriation.” Rights activists say Burundians who go home are often targeted as dissidents by the authoritarian government.
Jackson said the refugees were left with a choice between “seeing their children at the mercy of rain, sun and cold… or being registered on the list of voluntary repatriates.”
