Le ministère de l’Environnement, de l’Agriculture et de l’Élevage a réceptionné, le 15 décembre 2025, des véhicules tout-terrain d’une valeur de 320 000 USD offerts par l’Organisation des Nations -unies pour l’alimentation et l’agriculture (FAO). Ces véhicules serviront à améliorer la mobilité des équipes techniques, à renforcer la capacité de réaction rapide face aux urgences sanitaires et à faciliter la collecte des informations, y compris dans les zones les plus enclavées du pays.

La correspondante du journal en ligne La Nova Burundi, Sandra Muhoza a encore une fois été devant Tribunal de Grande Instance de Ngozi ce vendredi 19 décembre, après l’ajournement de la précédente audience. L’affaire a été entendu au fond.

La frontière burundaise ploie sous le choc. Depuis début décembre, plus de 84 000 personnes ont fui les violences dans l'est de la République démocratique du Congo (RDC) pour trouver refuge au Burundi voisin. Selon l’agence de l’ONU pour les réfugiés, plus de 200 000 Congolais résident désormais dans le pays, qui peine à les accueillir dans des conditions descentes.

En République démocratique du Congo, la majorité présidentielle est descendue dans la rue ce vendredi 19 décembre à Kinshasa. Encadrés par plusieurs responsables politiques, des militants ont manifesté pour réclamer le respect des accords de Washington, censés instaurer un cessez-le-feu dans l’est du pays. Cette mobilisation intervient alors que les rebelles de l’AFC/M23, soutenus par le Rwanda, ont récemment pris le contrôle de la ville d’Uvira, dans le Sud-Kivu, avant d’annoncer leur retrait jeudi, sous la pression des États-Unis. 

Après l’afflux massif de réfugiés fuyant les violences dans l’est de la République démocratique du Congo, le Burundi fait face à une pression humanitaire exceptionnelle. Selon les autorités burundaises, plus de 76 000 réfugiés congolais sont arrivés en quelques jours dans le pays, souvent sans abri, sans eau potable ni accès aux soins. Le Comité international de la Croix-Rouge alerte sur une situation critique, notamment dans des sites de transit saturés. Olivier Haringanji, chef de mission du CICR à Bujumbura, répond aux questions de Christina Okello.

Parallel peace talks between the Congolese government and Rwanda and the M23 rebels, respectively, have yielded welcome agreements. But as these negotiations have proceeded, the battles in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo have become more intense. Diplomats need to redouble their efforts. 

This week on Hold Your Fire!, Richard talks with Crisis Group expert Richard Moncrieff about M23’s advance into Uvira in eastern DRC, dangerous Burundi-Rwanda tensions and what the latest fighting means for U.S. and other efforts to end the war.

UN refugee agency says women and children arriving 'exhausted and severely traumatised' after fleeing eastern DRC.

Countries: Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo Source: UN High Commissioner for Refugees GENEVA – UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is deeply alarmed by the worsening humanitarian situation in Burundi, which has reached a critical point following a rapid influx of refugees and asylum-seekers fleeing violence in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Since early December, over 84,000 people fleeing escalating clashes in DRC’s South Kivu have crossed into Burundi. This significantly increases the total number of Congolese refugees and asylum-seekers in Burundi to more than 200,000. Thousands of people crossing the border on foot and by boats each day have overwhelmed local resources, creating a major humanitarian emergency that requires immediate global support. Women and children are particularly affected, arriving exhausted and severely traumatized, bearing the physical and psychological marks of terrifying violence. Our teams met pregnant women, who shared that they had not eaten in days. In Burundi, transit centres and informal sites where new arrivals are hosted have far surpassed capacity, in some cases by nearly 200 per cent, leaving hundreds of families in untenable conditions. Acute water and sanitation shortages are increasing the risk of outbreaks of life-threatening diseases, including cholera and Mpox. Immediate supplies, especially more shelters, latrines, water, food and medical stocks, are critical to ensure people can access the help they need. The Government of Burundi has designated a new site for the ongoing arrivals, Bweru, in Ruyigi Buhumuza province in the east of the country, to ease congestion in existing sites. So far, nearly 21,000 refugees have been relocated from the reception and transit centres to Bweru. However, conditions there remain dire. Many families are still sleeping in the open due to a lack of tents, leaving thousands exposed to harsh conditions in a high-altitude area where evening temperatures drop sharply amid ongoing rains. Across the border in the DRC’s South Kivu, violence, drone attacks and bombardments have forced more than 500,000 Congolese from their homes. Many have been displaced several times this year alone. Dozens of schools are now serving as overcrowded dormitories, and the first cases of cholera are emerging. Fighting continues to restrict humanitarian access, limiting the ability to reach people in desperate need. Where access permits, UNHCR and partners continue to conduct protection monitoring and provide life-saving assistance. UNHCR reiterates its call to end the conflict in eastern DRC. It also urges parties to the conflict to honour and fully implement commitments made in recent peace efforts to protect civilians, ensure safe and unhindered access for humanitarians, and prevent further suffering for millions of Congolese. Despite the challenges, UNHCR and partners are doing everything they can to assist those affected in the DRC, as well as newly arrived families in Burundi. We are registering arrivals and providing them with essentials including household items, blankets and buckets. Along with the government and humanitarian partners, UNHCR is also setting up infrastructure within the new site, including tents, latrines, and water tanks, while improving road access and preparing land for additional shelters. UNHCR protection teams are also identifying people with specific needs, particularly unaccompanied children and survivors of sexual violence, so that they can be appropriately supported. Yet needs far outweigh available resources. UNHCR is seeking US$47.2 million over the next four months to assist 500,000 internally displaced people in the DRC and up to 166,000 refugees in Burundi, Rwanda, and other neighbouring countries to which Congolese are likely to flee. Without swift additional funding, aid delivery will continue to be delayed, and more people will be put in harm’s way. For more information, please contact: * In Bujumbura, Bernard Ntwari, [email protected], +257 79 91 89 02 * In Kinshasa, Rachel Criswell, [email protected] +243 82 52 57 774 * In Nairobi (regional), Faith Kasina, [email protected], +254 113 427 094 * In Dakar (regional), Senan Rose Fidelia Bohissou, [email protected], +221 77 569 91 60 * In Geneva, Eujin Byun, [email protected], +41 79 747 87 19

Countries: Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania Source: UN High Commissioner for Refugees Please refer to the attached Infographic.

In eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), across a vast swathe of mountainous terrain, a conflict is raging that the world has forgotten. The Allied Democratic Forces, an Islamic State-linked armed group commonly called the ADF, are abducting and killing civilians with alarming frequency, and abusing women and girls as sexual slaves in North Kivu and Ituri provinces. The vast majority of these incidents barely make news headlines. As a researcher with Amnesty International’s team tasked with investigating war crimes and abuses in crises, I visited North Kivu last month to document the abuses committed by the ADF. Even as I was traveling from one city to another to speak to witnesses of recent attacks, new hit-and-run incursions were taking place in real time. Men, women and children told me how they ran for their lives as fighters armed with blades and guns descended on their villages. Several shared horror stories about watching loved ones being killed and abducted. Released hostages talked of agonizing spells – sometimes months and years – spent in captivity, practically starved and forced to do various tasks in ADF camps scattered in the region’s thick forests. However, global media coverage about these attacks has been minimal. While I was in eastern Congo, the steady stream of headlines about DRC focused mostly on the US and Qatari-mediated peace processes in relation to the conflict with the Rwanda-backed March 23 Movement (M23). Meanwhile, the territory of Lubero in North Kivu was experiencing a week-long assault during which ADF fighters went from village to village, hacking people to death with machetes and burning down homes and vital facilities. ADF attacks on civilians ADF, which originated in Uganda, has been targeting Congolese civilians since the early 2000s when it moved to eastern DRC. In 2019, the group pledged allegiance to the Islamic State, officially becoming part of an international enterprise. The DRC’s armed forces (FARDC) and their Ugandan counterpart (UPDF) have been engaged in a joint operation against the group since 2021. The UN mission, MONUSCO, has provided support to various Congolese state bodies over the years, though its direct involvement in facing off with the group has had its limitations. With international and domestic attention shifting to M23’s advances in early 2025, the ADF has seized on the diversion of troops and focus. ADF’s signature ruthlessness expanded both in intensity and geographic reach, further accelerating since August, with civilians rather than security forces primarily being on the receiving end. I started my investigation in Beni city, the now de facto capital of North Kivu province that has long suffered from ADF violence. Given the group’s deeper push into Lubero Territory, I also traveled to the city of Butembo to speak with survivors who witnessed one of ADF’s bloodiest attacks this year, the 8 September massacre in Ntoyo village. In that attack, fighters killed more than 60 people, many of whom were attending a funeral wake. Witnesses told me how ADF members had discretely mingled among mourners for hours, before suddenly starting to strike people’s heads with hammers. Throngs of other camouflage-clad fighters soon joined, burning homes and killing more civilians in the village with machetes and guns. Rawya Rageh interviews a survivor of ADF attacks in the DRC. Copyright: Amnesty International On the way to Butembo, I started receiving messages from sources about a new attack in Lubero’s Byambwe village. We reached out to community leaders and human rights defenders to help connect us to witnesses to gather their testimony. Witnesses told me that, as they had in Ntoyo, ADF fighters initially arrived as a nondescript group that included women and children, this time asking for directions to the local hospital.  Then suddenly gunshots rang out at the medical facility. An older person, who managed to escape from the hospital alongside a grandchild, described crawling out of the facility: “You couldn’t stand; they shot at anything that moved.” In total, the fighters killed more than 30 people, including 17 at the health facility. The fighters did not stop at Byambwe; their rampage continued for days. We held our interviews in Butembo at a medical facility and bodies of ADF victims kept arriving at its morgue during our visit. At one point, we saw relatives packing a body bag into a casket to take it for burial. Grief engulfed not only the mourners, but also the hospital staff who told me of their horror at the string of killings. One said: “Tell everyone we are being massacred.”  The sense of helplessness was clear in the hospital worker’s tone. It echoed the sentiments of scores of victims with whom I spoke. One group that particularly felt abandoned were the girls and women abducted by the group and forced into “marriages” with ADF fighters. I spoke to six survivors – the “choice”, they were told, was to accept or be killed. Most escaped from a life of sexual slavery and domestic servitude after operations by FARDC and UPDF that targeted their camps. But they remained shackled by suspicious looks and whispers from their neighbors in their villages, they said. Those who came home with children described how their own families have rejected the little ones. One woman said pressure by family members to kill her own child almost drove her to taking her own life. These testimonies highlighted the prolonged impact of the group’s violence and the hidden struggle of thousands of victims who need significant and multifaceted support and do not have it. Civilians must be protected The international community must step up efforts to support the Congolese authorities to assist survivors, protect civilians and investigate and prosecute ADF’s pervasive war crimes. Despite shortcomings, MONUSCO’s support to Congolese authorities should continue – something the UN Security Council, led by France as the penholder on this file, must bear in mind when the mission’s mandate is up for renewal this month. In UN hallways, there are whispers that not much shocks anymore when it comes to DRC. But civilians being systematically abducted and murdered with such frequency should not be seen as just another day in eastern DRC. A comprehensive approach to security, justice and accountability is needed. The world cannot continue to ignore the brutality being meted out by the ADF in eastern DRC. As one survivor told me: “How much more must we suffer before this ends?” The post “Tell everyone we are being massacred”: overlooked war crimes in the Democratic Republic of the Congo appeared first on Amnesty International.

Countries: Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia Source: UN High Commissioner for Refugees Please refer to the attached file. HIGHLIGHTS • As of 15 December, almost 80,000 people- including some 8,000 Burundians - had arrived in Burundi since 6 December. The situation among new arrivals is dire, with acute needs and vulnerabilities reported across sectors. The protection and health situation remains a particular concern, with new arrivals facing inadequate access to shelter, food, water and sanitation both during their journey to Burundi and upon arrival. • Given the scale and severity of the crisis, on 17 December the Government of Burundi declared a state of emergency. As part of this emergency declaration, a joint InterAgency Flash Appeal developed by UNHCR in coordination with the Government and Partners was released, with eight partners appealing for a combined US$33.2 M to respond to 90,000 new arrivals over a four month period. • At the regional level, UNHCR has also launched a four-month emergency appeal covering the period December 2025 through March 2026. Under this appeal UNHCR is requesting US$47.2 million to support the immediate and ongoing response to IDPs in eastern DRC, reinforce preparedness, and sustain life-saving protection and assistance for refugees and returnees arriving in Burundi as well as Rwanda, in addition to preparedness measures in Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia.

Afflux massif de réfugiés, spectre d'une catastrophe humanitaire, fermeture des frontières, accusations contre accusations, la pression américaine... La dernière en date, le « retrait » de l'AFC/M23 de la ville d'Uvira. La guerre à l'Est de la RDC va de rebondissements en rebondissements. Entre-temps, une situation d'urgence de niveau 2 a été déclarée pour le Burundi par le HCR et 33 millions USD sont à mobiliser.

Alors que l'AFC/M23 a annoncé son retrait d'Uvira après avoir pris cette ville stratégique du Sud-Kivu, les accords signés à Washington le 4 décembre dernier suscitent plus de questions que de réponses. Simple mise en scène pour l'administration Trump ou véritable tournant dans la crise des Grands Lacs ? Jason Stearns, Jason Stearns, professeur en relations internationales à l'Université Simon Fraser au Canada et cofondateur d'Ebuteli, Institut de recherche à Kinshasa et fin connaisseur de la région, analyse pour nous les faiblesses de ces accords, les véritables enjeux derrière l'offensive d'Uvira, et les défis sécuritaires qui attendent aussi bien Kinshasa que Bujumbura. Entre manœuvres diplomatiques et réalités du terrain, il plaide pour un changement radical de stratégie : « En plus des incitations, il faudra des pressions politiques et économiques. »

Le Burundi subit une forte pression humanitaire. Selon l'ONU, il y aurait plus de 500 000 nouveaux déplacés dans l'est de la RDC depuis l'offensive récente du M23, soutenu par le Rwanda. Au moins 76 000 Congolais ont fui vers le Burundi voisin, où ils vivent dans des conditions difficiles. 

Le Burundi subit une forte pression humanitaire. Selon l'ONU, il y aurait plus de 500 000 nouveaux déplacés dans l'est de la RDC depuis l'offensive récente du M23, soutenu par le Rwanda. Au moins 76 000 Congolais ont fui vers le Burundi voisin, où ils vivent dans des conditions difficiles. 

Des discussions s'ouvrent aujourd'hui en Floride entre les États-Unis et l'Ukraine pour tenter d'avancer vers une fin de conflit. C'est un vrai caillou dans la chaussure de Donald Trump. Il ne cesse de le répéter, la dernière fois c’était dans son allocution de fin d’année : il prétend avoir mis fin à huit guerres depuis le début de son mandat. Cela relève, au mieux, d’un certain optimisme.

Il y a quelque chose, excusez-moi, d’indécent : le Burundi, mon pays, parmi les plus pauvres au monde, qui va encore très mal, doit mobiliser 33 millions de dollars pour accueillir des réfugiés qui fuient une guerre dont les Burundais (...)

Country: Burundi Source: International Organization for Migration Please refer to the attached Infographic. La DTM Burundi a le plaisir de partager avec vous des informations sur le suivi des urgences au Burundi pour la période du 30 novembre au 13 décembre 2025. Au cours de cette période, la DTM a identifié un total de 3 647 personnes affectées, dont 380 personnes déplacées. Ces urgences sont principalement liées à des pluies torrentielles, ainsi qu’à des épisodes de grêle et de vents violents, ayant touché plusieurs provinces et communes du pays, notamment Bujumbura, Buhumuza, Gitega et Burunga.

Ce mercredi soir, l'AFC/M23 a affirmé avoir entamé son retrait d'Uvira, dans l'est de la République démocratique du Congo. Cependant, pour le moment, les États-Unis estiment qu'il n'existe aucune "preuve crédible" de ce retrait. Par ailleurs, Washington accentue la pression sur Kigali pour qu'il cesse de soutenir le M23. "Le Rwanda est toujours en contact avec le médiateur américain pour trouver une solution à cette crise, et nous allons continuer à discuter avec la partie américaine", réagit Olivier Nduhungirehe, ministre des Affaires étrangères du Rwanda, invité du Journal de l'Afrique. 

Certains habitants de la colline Rongero, commune Rutana de la province de Burunga considèrent que personne ne devrait être humiliée sur base de sa vie privée. Ils appellent au respect des autres.

Une semaine après la conquête d'Uvira, les rebelles l'AFC/M23 ont indiqué avoir entamé leur retrait de la ville frontalière du Burundi. Kinshasa émet cependant des doutes et appelle à la vigilance.

Countries: Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo Source: UN High Commissioner for Refugees Please refer to the attached Infographic.

Countries: Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo Source: UN High Commissioner for Refugees Please refer to the attached file. Since 5 December 2025, renewed violence in eastern DRC has triggered a sharp and continuous movement of forcibly displaced persons into Burundi. The pressure on border entry points—especially Buganda, Gatumba, Vugizo, Ndava, and Cishemere—remains intense. The government of Burundi and UNHCR are struggling to keep pace with identification, particularly in Ndava, where arrivals continue at scale. While in Gatumba, the identification remains challenging. The humanitarian footprint is expanding rapidly as authorities and partners race to stabilize their interventions while managing one of the largest cross-border influxes recorded in recent years.

Countries: Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo Source: UN High Commissioner for Refugees Please refer to the attached file. SITUATION OVERVIEW Since December 5, 2025, the escalation of conflict in Kamanyola, Luvungi, and Katogota (South Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo) has triggered a massive influx of people into Burundi. The Burundian authorities reported that the Buganda border crossing has experienced unprecedented movement, with 33,600 new arrivals estimated in just a few days. The upward trend continues, placing significant strain on operational capacities at the border.