GENEVA, Switzerland, Aug. 20 (UPI) -- The U.N. refugee agency says it has reached an agreement with Burundi to open a second camp deeper within the country to relocate Congolese refugees.
The idea is to get them away from the dangerous border area with the Democratic Republic of Congo, where more than 150 mostly ethnic Tutsi Congolese were massacred a week ago at the Gatumba transit camp 10 miles northwest of the Burundi capital, Bujumbura, and about halfway to the Congo border town of Uvira.
Planning has been completed on the new site at Gizosi in southeastern Burundi, a spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said. The first camp was approved earlier in the week.
"We are ready to start preparing the camps as soon as the government gives the final green light, which is expected on Monday," Ron Redmond told a news briefing in Geneva. Some refugees remain reluctant to move and were seeking reassurance that they would be safe in the new location.
The refugees are the latest among about 20,000 Congolese who have fled the DRC's South Kivu province since June.
