The Burundian government has begun carrying out its promise to the United Nations Security Council last month to close eleven of its controversial relocation camps.

Large numbers of people are reported to have begun leaving the Maramvya camp just north of the capital, Bujumbura, after a government minister gave them permission to go home.

The Tutsi-dominated Burundian army forced more than three-hundred-thousand civilians, mostly Hutus, into about sixty camps in late September as part of its policy of trying to isolate Hutu rebels. Maramvya, which housed nearly five-thousand people, is the first to close. The camps were sharply criticised by the new peace mediator for Burundi, the former South African president, Nelson Mandela. The government originally declared that the camps near Bujumbura would be the last to close, because of security problems, but it said on Friday that security had now been restored.

Peace talks are due to resume later this month.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service