ABOUT 17,000 Hutus, denied sanctuary in Tanzania after abandoning refugees camps in Burundi, are trudging home to an uncertain future in Rwanda, a senior aid official said in Nairobi yesterday.
The latest movement caught aid agencies by surprise as the Hutus had previously refused to go back to Rwanda for fear of retribution for the 1994 genocide of the Tutsi minority at the hands of Hutu death squads.
Tanzania closed its borders to the refugees on Sunday after last week allowing in 15,000," who said they were fleeing a campaign by Burundi's army, which is mainly recruited from, Tutsis, to drive them out.
"It would appear they are heading back to Rwanda," Mr Seamus Dunne, head of the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) at Ngara camp in Tanzania, said. ,"They're heading in the general direction of Rwanda from what we can track of their movements towards the border."
Mr Dunne said the refugees, who fled their camp at Ntamba in north east Burundi following reports of killings at nearby sites, had changed course after the Tanzanian army sealed the border.
"There's a strong Tanzanian military presence along the border. It's definitely not relaxed. The army are determined that large numbers will not come through," he said.
The Tanzanian government has made no comment on the border closure. The Defence Minister, Mr Edgar Majogo, said on Saturday that the impoverished east African country, already hosting 700,000 Rwandans, could no longer cope on its own.
Tanzania lifted a closure of its border last week to give 15,000 Rwandan Hutus from Mugano temporary shelter.
Those who crossed said they were fleeing attacks by the Burundi army. Witnesses said the army killed 20 Rwandan Hutus and wounded many more in an attack on the Mugano camp last Wednesday. The Burundi army has denied the reports.
The Rwandans first fled their homeland in 1994 after soldiers and mobs loyal to a hard line Hutu regime massacred about one million Tutsis and Hutu moderates.