The United Nations High Commission for Refugees will be on an eight day mission to Uganda and Tanzania starting Monday
A U.N. statement says Antonio Guterres will oversee the start of a new program that would help refugees from Burundi return to their country for the first time since 1972.
The commissioner's office says some 218,000 Burundians were forced out of their homeland by violence that year, and now he would like to get as many home as possible.
In a deal reached by Burundi, Tanzania and the U.N. refugee agency, 172,000 of the refugees will be allowed to stay in Tanzania and become citizens. The other 46,000 plan to return home to Burundi.
