This unexpected turn of events left Hutus, guilty and innocent alike, searching for some safe haven. Refugees poured across the borders in numbers such as the world had never before witnessed with the Goma, Zaire, region bearing the brunt of the onslaught. Not in any way prepared to deal with more than two million homeless, hungry people, the Zairian government graciously accepted all comers and began the seemingly impossible task of establishing and organizing camps outside of Goma to accommodate the flood of humanity streaming across the border. The remainder of Rwandan refugees are accommodated in camps located in everal adjacent countries. Consequently, most people arrived in camp with essentially no possessions or supplies.
Most shelters measure about seven feet wide by ten feet long and house seven people.
A small number of resourceful refugees have actually built quite serviceable miniature cabins from local volcanic stone. Cooking and heat are provided by wood burning which denudes the surrounding land and provides a constant smoke haze over the camps, exacerbates the ever present respiratory tract infections and triggers childhood asthma attacks which are common in this population. As if this weren't enough misery, real catastrophe struck as a result of an inability to provide a pure, uncontaminated water supply. Cholera arrived in camp early and decimated refugee populations. At this point, the medical relief effort was totally overwhelmed and was reduced to small commando-style medical teams that patrolled into the vast camps, going hut to hut, treating ill people on the spot with intravenous fluid infusions.