UN refugee agency, partners launch plan to help 200,000 Burundian refugees

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and 17 of its partners have launched the Regional Refugee Response Plan to protect and assist up to 200,000 Burundian refugees in neighboring countries, a UN spokesman told reporters here Friday.

"Since early April, nearly 100,000 Burundians have fled Burundi to Rwanda, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of the Congo," Farhan Haq, the deputy UN spokesman, said at a daily news briefing here.

"As the situation in Burundi remains tense and violence continues to be reported, aid agencies fear that the number of refugees may double over the next six months," Haq said.

Meanwhile, UN High Commissioner Antonio Guterres praised the neighboring countries for keeping their borders open and called on the international donor community to support the Response Plan, he said.

The situation in Burundian remains uncertain after authorities decided to postpone parliamentary elections for reasons of national security, following protests and a thwarted coup attempt to overthrow President Pierre Nkurunziza.

Demonstrations have broken out in Burundi against Nkurunziza's bid to run for a third term, which protesters claim is in violation of the constitution and Arusha peace and reconciliation deal that brought the tiny Central African country's civil war to an end.

On May 13, a group of soldiers and policemen headed by Major General Godefroid Niyombare staged a coup against Nkurunziza and his government, but the coup plot failed one day later.

Article 96 of the country's constitution stipulates that the president is elected by universal suffrage for a five-year mandate, renewable once, but Nkurunziza argues he has only been directly elected by the people once.

The Burundian legislative and communal elections due on May 26 have been postponed to June 5, allegedly to allow the army and police to first pacify the country. Endite