Burundi Humanitarian Hotline [EN/RN]

Burundi has an estimated population of 10.8m people; UNHCR says least 268,000 refugees have fled to DR Congo, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia (as of end June 2016) since President Pierre Nkurunziza announced running for a third term in April 2015. The limited or lack of information followed the shutdown of five private media houses in May in the run-up to presidential elections in July 2015.

The Burundi Humanitarian Hotline is an inter-sector initiative whose pilot phase went live on 1 October to 31 December 2015 with support from the Australian High Commission. This is with the aim of providing an avenue to draw information from communities on their needs to update the humanitarian situation in Burundi. It is also a tool for two-way communication with crisis-affected people. The project continues following unanimous support from partners and funding from the CERF Secretariat which will cover April to December 2016.

Other partners also publicize the hotline through their networks. The consortium comprises World Vision Burundi, BRCs, IOM, UNOCHA, Caritas Burundi and Save the Children who contributed to this initiative. UNHCR, UNICEF and WFP participated in the joint learning process.