In the Kyaka II refugee settlement in western Uganda, time had not erased the memory of a six-year-old boy left behind in the chaos of flight. 

Nkundwanabake Anesia, aged 58, fled Burundi in 1994 when the early years of the conflict devastated her community. As she made her way to Uganda via Tanzania, she carried with her a wound that would take decades to heal: the separation from her young son, Ntahimpera Jean Marie Eric.

With no way of tracing him across borders and years of silence stretching into decades, Anesia feared the worst. 

Anesia lived in Itambabiniga, Ruchinga village, Kyaka II. Over time, she learnt about a service offered by the Uganda Red Cross Society (URCS), with support from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), that helps trace missing persons.

In July 2025, she came forward and opened a tracing request – her first formal step in more than 30 years towards finding out the fate of her son.

On 12 March 2026, an ICRC team in Burundi, working alongside the Burundi Red Cross Society, located Anesia’s missing son, who had sent her a Red Cross message containing his contact details and asking to be reunited with his mother.

The ICRC in Uganda, together with the URCS team, delivered the Red Cross Message and facilitated a phone call between mother and son.

Although simple in form, it was profound in meaning. For the first time in thirty-one years, mother and son heard each other's voices. Both had feared the other dead.