Jordanian Princess Sarah Zeid visits Mahama refugee camps

The Jordanian princess Sarah Zeid who is in Rwanda since Monday has visited the Mahama refugee camp that hosts Burundian refugees in Kirehe district, Eastern Province. She was intended to learn more about the challenges Burundian refugees face and how effective Rwandan officials handle them. Zeid said she will be an ambassador for them as to help in handling such issues faced by Burundian refugees in Mahama camp.

She lauded the partnership between Rwandan officials and the UN commission for refugees in helping refugees live in a relative comfort despite of the fact that they fled their nation.

The effective management between Rwandan government and UNHCR is displayed through the fact that refugees live in houses instead of tents that normally characterize many refugee camps.

Sarah Zeid tanked the Rwandan government for having initiated varying activities that benefit to refugees including basketry for women.

This enables them to feel safe and useful while increasing their skills.

The deputy CEO of the UNHCR at a global level  Volker Turk informed that normally challenges that refugees face are mostly similar worldwide, adding that the aim of the UN organization is to advocate for them to be removed or reduced in intensity.

He said that this is done through a close partnership with the host nations.

Rwandan Minister in charge of refugee affairs and disaster management Seraphine Mukantabana  called upon the UNHCR representative and princess Zeid to be more involved in the management of the refugee issues in Rwanda as the number is huge and requires more investment and management that Rwanda finds more demanding.

She said that Burundian and DR Congolese refugees in Rwanda are ought to be given learning opportunities as to be self reliant in the future.

Mahama refugee camp hosts not less than 57 000 refugees. Children in this camp attend school and the whole camp is getting cleaner and healthy progressively.

Princess Sarah Zeid is the wife of Prince Zeid bin Raad Zeid al-Hussein from Jordan and she is a Senior Commissioner in the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Princess Sarah Zeid served also in  the UNDP, UNICEF among other UN based institutions.

UM– USEKE.RW