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In Burundi, a mass wedding celebration for DRC refugees

They have fled their homes and lost loved ones to conflict, but for 46 Congolese couples there is a reason to celebrate.

Congolese mass marriage / Please Do Not Use
A Congolese couple walk with their friends and family to the tent where the weddings will take place. [Griff Tapper/Al Jazeera]
By Griff Tapper
Published On 17 Oct 201617 Oct 2016
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Kavumu, Burundi – Inside a wooden, tin-roofed structure in the Kavumu refugee camp in eastern Burundi, 46 couples are waiting to get married. They have all fled their homes in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo.

Some of them are already married but, having lost their wedding certificates when they left their homes, are going through the process again. Others, like Bonnet Mfaume and Zubeda Karinga, are marrying each other for the first time. Zubeda is pregnant with their fifth child and describes her “unusual happiness” about the occasion. It is a cause for celebration at a time when they have had little to feel positive about. 

But marriage can mean more than that for the refugees. Abel Mbilinyi, the Burundi representative for the UNHCR, explains that marriage offers “protection for women”.

“In a refugee camp, depending on which religion you are having, depending on culture, the protection of a husband is so important,” he continues. “Women who are single are vulnerable. They are vulnerable to being attacked by single men.”


 MORE: Is the DR Congo on the brink of collapse?


Deo Kasereka and Antoinette Etamboseka are among those waiting to get married. They have been a couple for many years and have five children together.

They fled their home in Goma, in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo. or DRC, after Deo was accused of giving the M23 rebels medical supplies from the pharmacy he owned. He says men in military uniforms came to his house while he was in hiding.

“Not finding me there, they abused my wife,” he says. “I had a little brother at home to whom they also asked my whereabouts. He replied that he was not aware of where I was and they shot him dead on the spot.”

The couple’s oldest son is 14 years old. He went missing during their flight, and they haven’t seen or heard from him since.

Congolese mass marriage / Please Do Not Use
A couple approach the desk where the marriage certificates are signed. It is overseen by an officiator dressed in the national colours of Burundi - green, white and red. [Griff Tapper/Al Jazeera]
Congolese mass marriage / Please Do Not Use
A woman dances in celebration at the weddings. [Griff Tapper/Al Jazeera]
Congolese mass marriage / Please Do Not Use
An onlooker throws rice as a couple prepare to exchange wedding rings. [Griff Tapper/Al Jazeera]
Congolese mass marriage / Please Do Not Use
Some wait their turn to be called up to get married, while others await the wedding of a family member or friend. [Griff Tapper/Al Jazeera]
Congolese mass marriage / Please Do Not Use
A bride places a wedding ring on her husband's finger after they had signed their marriage certificates with their thumbprints. [Griff Tapper/Al Jazeera]
Congolese mass marriage / Please Do Not Use
A woman smiles as she watches her friends getting married. [Griff Tapper/Al Jazeera]
Congolese mass marriage / Please Do Not Use
There are almost 57,000 refugees or asylum seekers from the Democratic Republic of Congo in Burundi. [Griff Tapper/Al Jazeera]
Congolese mass marriage / Please Do Not Use
Four refugee camps accommodate all of the refugees from the DRC in Burundi. [Griff Tapper/Al Jazeera]
Congolese mass marriage / Please Do Not Use
The UNHCR says that approximately 200 people are coming into Burundi seeking asylum each week. That is a 'slight increase' on last year's numbers. [Griff Tapper/Al Jazeera]
Congolese mass marriage / Please Do Not Use
People dance in celebration after the mass marriage ceremony. [Griff Tapper/Al Jazeera]
Congolese mass marriage / Please Do Not Use
Deo Kasereka and Antoinette Etamboseka return to their home in the camp after their marriage. [Griff Tapper/Al Jazeera]
Congolese mass marriage / Please Do Not Use
'I feel very happy because I have a husband. I had children but had not yet been married. Now I feel much happiness because he is really my husband from now on, and the way we exchanged rings made me overjoyed,' says Antoinette Etamboseka. [Griff Tapper/Al Jazeera]
Congolese mass marriage / Please Do Not Use
Clement Muragizi had paid a dowry to the father of his then fiancee, Anita Nanziza, but they had to leave the DRC before they could marry. They were separated as they fled but later reunited in Kavumu. Anita believes being married will set a good example for the children they hope to have together. 'It is helpful for me to carry out a marriage so we are not separated from my husband,' she says. [Griff Tapper/Al Jazeera]
Congolese mass marriage / Please Do Not Use
Faliala Tulinao and Johanna Faila say they fled the DRC after they became involved in a land conflict with a neighbour who was a major in the Mai-Mai rebel group. The man threatened to kill them, they say, after he refused to give back a small plot of land on to which he had encroached. [Griff Tapper/Al Jazeera]


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