Burundi: Returnees stage sit-in to demand food, shelter

Some 85 Burundians representing families of returnees based at the Gatumba transit site near the border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), staged a sit-in on Wednesday at the offices of the Burundian human rights group, Iteka, to demand food aid and shelter. "We came to Iteka because all our attempts to get the CNRS [the National Commission for the Rehabilitation of Displaced Persons and Refugees] assistance have failed," the returnees told IRIN. The returnees, who were repatriated in 2002 from the DRC, Tanzania and Rwanda, complained that since their return the CNRS had left them on their own. They said the commission kept promising food aid, which it had failed to deliver.