Ngara District

Ngara is located in northwestern Tanzania near the borders of Rwanda and Burundi. Its elevation is approximately 6,000 feet (1,800 m) and is considered to be in the highlands of Tanzania. The district covers and area of 3,305 square kilometres (1,276 sq mi).[4]

Ngara has four seasons: two dry seasons from June to September and January to February with two rainy seasons from October to December and from March to May. During dry seasons there are sometimes strong winds/hazy air and temperatures vary between 18 and 30 °C (64 and 86 °F), depending on the time of day or night. During the rainy seasons, sudden and heavy downpours may occur daily, lasting from a few minutes to several hours. The rain is sometimes associated with strong winds, floods, mud, fog and temperatures may range between 12 and 26 °C (54 and 79 °F).

The local language in Ngara is Kihangaza, which is very similar to Rundi and Kinyarwanda, the languages of Rwanda and Burundi. Although Tanzania’s national and official languages are Swahili and English, usage in Ngara District is, however, rather limited to official functions, offices, institutions of higher learning and a few other places. Generally, English is understood on a limited scale in the market, and Swahili much more so.

The primary occupation is subsistence farming and livestock rearing. Local crops include bananas, passion fruit, papaya, groundnuts, beans, coffee, maize, cassava and a variety of vegetables. The local population's livestock is mostly cattle, goats and chickens.

Ngara District received several hundred thousand refugees from Burundi beginning in 1993, and Rwanda in 1994 during the Great Lakes Refugee Crisis. The refugees fled the aftermath of the 1994 Rwandan genocide and Civil War. In this context, Ngara District received attention from around the world, including the funding of a large refugee relief operation funded by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, World Food Program, and International donors. The crisis brought coverage from CNN, Time Magazine, and many other press outlets covering the refugee crisis. Starting in October 1993 civil unrest in Burundi led also to refugee flight into Ngara District, where they were resettled at Lukole Refugee Camp. A number of refugee camps were established to accommodate the Rwandan refugees, the largest camp which was Benaco, which was opened to accommodate over 200,000 refugees from Rwanda in early May 1994. Other camps were opened in Ngara District in 1994 at Lumasi for Rwandans, and Lukole for Burundians.[6] Other small camps for Burundians were opened in 1996. Benaco and the other camps for Rwandans were closed in late 1996, when the Tanzanian military, in cooperation with the governments of Rwanda, and the international donors supporting the camps, forcibly repatriated several hundred thousand. [7] However, smaller numbers of refugees have remained in the district since that time, particularly Burundians. Lukole camp for Burundians is the best known of these camps.[8] Ngara District has a long history of receiving refugees. The first refugees arrived in the early 1960s, when Tutsi refugees fled from Rwanda following that country's independence. They were resettled in Ngara for over twenty years, before returning to Rwanda after 1994.[9]