Adelaide United's Pacifique Niyongabire and Melbourne Victory's Elvis Kamsoba’s mother is stranded in Burundi
Former refugees and A-League brothers Pacifique Niyongabire and Elvis Kamsoba are heartbroken as their mother has been left stranded in Burundi due to the coronavirus pandemic shut down.
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Former refugees, brothers Adelaide United's Pacifique Niyongabire and Melbourne Victory's Elvis Kamsoba are heartbroken as their mother is stranded in Burundi anxious to return to her husband and five children.
The tight knit Elizabeth Downs family are praying Claudine Nijimbere, 40, can at the very least fly out of Burundi on Saturday in the hope she can edge closer to a long awaited family reunion.
About 40 days after leaving home for a wedding of a nephew in Makamba, Burundi, Nijimbire became an innocent victim of the coronavirus pandemic as the crisis has shut down most major airports across the globe.
Nijimbire says she is not losing hope after fighting a big battle to stay alive in a race for freedom across water when Kamsoba was born during the height of the Burundian civil war.
With money running out Nijimbere’s plight has shaken the entire family as a one-way flight home which was already fully booked this week was priced at $7500 to leave from Rwanda.
Nijimbire’s South Australian-born daughters Daniella Nishimwe, 8, and Nella Uwimana, 5, are constantly asking when mum is coming home, making the forced separation unbearable she said.
“We’re struggling financially, we have to pay for the hotel and food,’’ Nijimbire said from Makamba.
“My husband (Daniel Dume, 46) stayed home to look after the kids.
“I miss my kids so much, I sometimes can't talk to them due to the fact that I have to lie to them every time about when I'm coming back.
“I got stuck here due to the coronavirus.
“Originally I was meant to come back on March 26 yet that flight got cancelled a week early.
“The same flight came up few days later and after we booked it, it got cancelled again.
“We have been trying to get help from the consular of Nairobi yet we don't seem to get any support.”
There is now a Gofundme page in a bid to raise money to get Nijimbire home.
Born in Burundi, Kamsoba was just four months old when civil war forced him and his parents to flee to Tanzania where Niyongabire was born.
They fled Burundi in a crowded small boat where they could have been killed if captured, spending 11 years in Tanzania’s Nduta refugee camp before landing in Australia.
The 23-year-old Victory attacker is based in Melbourne on a forced coronavirus hiatus with full pay after Niyongabire, 20, who has suffered from injury this season was stood down with no pay on April 1.
Kamsoba – a Burundian international – is still training alone under instructions from Victory bosses, revealing he had also just penned a two-year extension.
“The lockdown of most major airports has made it very difficult for my mother to get out,’’ Kamsoba said.
“We’re hoping she could have gotten on the flight on Saturday from Bujumbura but there were limited seats left and the cost was $7500.
“We’re trying to do whatever we can to get her home.
“Dad is looking after the girls and working full time.
“It’s so heartbreaking for everyone, the girls especially, they’re missing mum.
“Mum is so worried and the girls are always calling me asking “where mum is” what can I tell them?
“I have tried contacting the Australian embassies in East Africa, but all the correspondence I get is to be patient, it makes it so difficult.
“I just wish mum would come home, we miss her.”
Originally published as Adelaide United's Pacifique Niyongabire and Melbourne Victory's Elvis Kamsoba’s mother is stranded in Burundi