Virtually all those affected are Hutu. Between them, these camps held 316,700 people at the end of December. There is another related regroupment site in Bujumbura town holding 12,000. Some regroupment camps commonly hold around 10,000 people, although the regroupment camp in Ruyaga, Rural Bujumbura, is said to contain around 30,000. Humanitarian assistance is currently only being provided to 24 sites, although others are being evaluated.
Some sites are inaccessible to independent agencies.
The extremely limited access of independent witnesses to the camps must heighten fears that human rights violations could be going on unrecorded. In the southern province of Rutana, also experiencing an intensification of the conflict, both Hutu and Tutsi civilians have been forced into regroupment camps. However, they have been separated, so that Hutu are in one site, Tutsi another. In the past when this has occurred, there has been a striking degree in the difference of protection offered on separate sites and in the conditions in camps, with the sites holding Hutu being much less protected and with worse conditions. The camps are under military control and eye witnesses speak of a high degree of intimidation, and voice fears of ill-treatment and punishment in the camps, by members of the armed forces.