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STORY: WFP / BURUNDI DRC FOOD AID
TRT: 2:45
SOURCE: WFP
RESTRICTIONS: PLEASE CREDIT WFP ON SCREEN
LANGAUGE: ENGLISH / SWAHILI / NATS
DATELINE: 26 JANURARY 2025 TO 11 MARCH 2025, BURUNDI AND DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO (DRC)
26 JANURARY 2025, GOMA, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO (DRC)
1. Various shots, displaced People Fleeing Fighting, displaced people flee Kanyaruchinya displaced persons camp, running away from fighting. IDP camps on the city’s outskirts, previously hosting more than 300,000 people, are emptying out as people flee.
10 FEBURARY 2025, GOMA, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO (DRC)
2. Various shots, aftermath of Abandoned Kanyaruchinya camp
Scattered belongings amongst the ruins of Kanyaruchinya camp where displaced people were staying on the outskirts of Goma after the M23 rebels took control of the city on January 26, 2025
11 MARCH 2025, RUGOMBO, BURUNDI
3. Various drone shots (mute), general views of the Rugombo Stadium
Since mid-February, nearly 70,000 people - mainly women, children and the elderly – have fled fighting in DRC to Burundi, many making dangerous river crossings and walking long distances in search of safety. More continue to arrive each day, adding to what is already the largest influx into Burundi in decades. They are settling in stadiums, schools and communal courtyards. Among these sites is this makeshift refugee camp in a sports stadium, where more than 45,000 Congolese refugees have found shelter.
4. Wide shot, Lea and her children eating WFP hotmeals. Lea is a 37-year-old mother of nine, who was forced to flee her village in Uvira, south Kivu province. She has since learned that her husband, who stayed behind was killed.
5. SOUNDBITE (Swahili) Lea:
" Bullets started flying. Then we started running. Some ran to mountains and others crossed the river/1:21/We ran with kids on our backs and luggage in our hands."
21 FEBURARY 2025, RUGOMBO, BURUNDI
6. Various shots, unloading of US donated food for people displaced by fighting in DR Congo
WFP currently only has the funds to sustain this level of support for 120,000 refugees through June. Without additional financial support, WFP warns that food assistance could be suspended entirely from July – or even earlier if the number of people fleeing DRC increases significantly.
11 MARCH 2025, RUGOMBO, BURUNDI
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Nitesh Patel, WFP Burundi:
“What we are seeing now in the stadium is basically the people who are fleeing the crisis in the eastern Democratic Republic [of Congo], arriving in Burundi and doubling the number of refugees in the country. We have been able to provide these refugees in this camp with the hot meals as soon as they arrived here and we are able to provide this basically because we had to reduce the assistance to the old refugee caseload and provide them with something we had in hand. This crisis had put enormous pressure on WFP's food pipeline which we are stretched. We are appealing to donor communities to come forward and provide funds so WFP can assure the emergency food assistance to this new caseload as well as the previous refugees which are in the country which has been here for more than decades.”
10 MARCH 2025, RUGOMBO, BURUNDI
8. Various shots, distribution of WFP Hot Meals to Refugees from DR Congo
21 FEBURARY 2025, RUGOMBO, BURUNDI
9. Med shot, mother feeding her child WFP Hot Meals
The UN World Food Programme (WFP) has rapidly mobilized additional assistance in Burundi to support the large influx of families fleeing violence in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The sharp increase in refugees in need of aid has placed a significant strain on WFP food assistance programmes in Burundi.
Since January 2025, nearly 70,000 people - mainly women, children and the elderly – have fled fighting in DRC to Burundi, many making dangerous river crossings and walking long distances in search of safety. More continue to arrive each day, adding to what is already the largest influx into Burundi in decades.
Cross border movement into DRC’s other neighbours, including Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania, is also increasing due to the escalating conflict in the country’s east and this threatens to worsen hunger across the region.
“Refugees are arriving every day, some weighed down with hastily packed bundles and suitcases, and others with nothing but the clothes on their backs,” said Dragica Pajevic, WFP’s Deputy Regional Director for eastern Africa, who is currently on the ground supporting operations in Burundi. “The number of refugees has doubled in just a few weeks, but funding has not kept pace. Our available resources are stretched beyond capacity, and we are being forced to adapt our operations and reduce rations to reach as many people as possible.”
Of the 70,000 people who have arrived in Burundi from DRC in recent weeks, 60,000 have been registered for food assistance, doubling WFP’s total refugee caseload to 120,000 in just a few weeks. WFP is providing hot meals to the new Congolese refugees, who are housed in temporary transit camps, schools, churches and sports stadiums.
Meanwhile, WFP’s existing refugees are receiving food rations – provided as a mix of in-kind food and cash. But to stretch limited resources, WFP was forced in March to reduce rations for existing refugees from 75 percent to 50 percent.
WFP currently only has the funds to sustain operations for 120,000 refugees through June. Without additional financial support, WFP will be forced to suspend food assistance entirely from July – or even earlier as refugee numbers continue to increase as conflict in eastern DRC intensifies.
To ensure uninterrupted assistance, WFP urgently needs US$19.8 million to maintain adequate support to the most vulnerable until the end of the year. This would also allow WFP to once again provide all refugees with full rations - vital life-saving support at this time of acute crisis.
