DAR ES SALAAM (AFP) — Tanzania said it would close camps housing more than 200,00 refugees displaced by war in Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo by June 2008.
"In the last two years, the government managed to close six out of 11 camps, the goal is to close the rest by June next year," Home Affairs Minister Joseph Mungai said at a press conference in Dar Es Salaam.
He said the remaining camps run by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in western Tanzania were home to 110,643 refugees from Burundi and 99,799 from the DRC.
Mungai said there were another 220,000 refugees from Burundi, the DRC and Rwanda living in settlements not supervised by the UNHCR.
The Tanzanian authorities have repeatedly urged Burundian refugees to return to their country, no longer in the throes of civil war but only slowly recovering from 14 years of civil strife that left hundreds of thousands dead.
Mungai said however that the number of refugees in the east African country has significantly dropped from 615,000 in December 2005.
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