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ACT Alert: Burundi
Emergency Response to Conflict Crisis
Geneva, 1 March 2016
1. Brief description of the emergency
Following the post-election violence in Burundi and the continued deterioration of the lives of affected population, the ACT Alliance members in Burundi are concerned about its impact on the economy and their livelihood systems. A total of 263, 000 Burundian refugees and asylum seekers have arrived in the neighboring countries of Tanzania, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia and Rwanda since April. Internal displacement has been difficult to ascertain due to the complex political situation but current figures estimate at least 25,000 across a few of the provinces who are accommodated by host communities in the respective provinces. Given that the situation in Burundi remains volatile, more displacement is expected. Initially, most of the refugees were women and children, while recently it is observed that a growing number of young men are among the arrivals. In addition to population directly influenced by the political situation, Burundi also has more than 900,000 people who are severely affected by food shortages, 150,000 children are malnourished and without services due to the aggravation of the crisis and suspension of funding by external donors. An estimated 30,000, affected by floods and landslides, are also without services from the government.
2. Why is an ACT response needed?
The situation is getting worse by the day and the ACT Forum support is needed to assist affected communities inside Burundi and mitigate against further violence. There is a huge gap in funding, and humanitarian action is urgently needed to both alleviate human suffering and restore dignity. The current crisis has been exacerbated by severe El Nino related flooding that is destroying crops and infrastructure that the Burundi government, working on a budget of 54% of previous years, will find difficult to respond to.
The ACT Alliance members work closely with churches and other partners who have better access in contested areas and assist affected communities especially those hosting IDPs living under very deplorable conditions. The members, including the Council of Churches are able to advocate for peace and support people in difficult situations. The Anglican Church has in place a network of Disaster Management Committees that could be extended to other areas of the country.
3. National and international response
Nationally, preparedness planning is spearheaded by the UNOCHA and other UN organizations such as UNHCR who are scaling their contingency planning and preparedness in the event of a sustained increased violence and there exist sectoral task forces to plan for the respective sectors. UN Humanitarian Directors from nearly all sectors visited Burundi in the first week of December to evaluate the situation inside the Country.
4. ACT Alliance response
Some of the ACT Alliance members in Burundi are participating in coordinated preparedness planning through the different coordination clusters. Through this, information on how to fit within the national plan reaches the whole forum. Over the length of the crisis ACT members have undertaken some emergency response activities for communities affected, including distributing NFI kits, nutritional and medical support, cash transfers, as well as WASH activities are ongoing supporting minors detained in re-education centers.
The National Council of Churches would be able to influence and unify all the religious leaders to make steps towards peaceful statements, reconciliations as well as recommendations to the parties in conflict.
ACT members including LWF, CA, NCA and the Anglican Church would be able to fill gaps in areas such as food security, NFI, Shelter and WASH with a focus on those directly affected by the conflict. ACT Burundi forum will coordinate closely with other ACT Alliance members in countries hosting Burundi refugees.
5. Planned activities
Based on the needs assessment, ACT forum and other stakeholders working in Burundi intend to focus on the following needs/areas of intervention:
- Emergency response (food and non-food items distribution)
- Early recovery
- Tackling Gender Based Violence (GBV)
- Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)
- Social Cohesion and Peace-Building
6. Constraints
Some of the anticipated challenges include inaccessibility to areas where relief assistance is needed due to insecurity conditions, political goodwill to end violence, limited funding to meet the basic needs of the affected population.
Any funding indication or pledge should be communicated to the Head of Finance and Administration, Line Hempel (Line.Hempel@actalliance.org)
For further information please contact: ACT Regional Programme Officer, Arnold Ambundo (Arnold.Ambundo@actalliance.org)
ACT Web Site address: http://www.actalliance.org
