NAIROBI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Malawi will reopen a former refugee camp to cope with an influx of around 250 Mozambicans a day fleeing political discord and worsening fighting between former civil war foes at home, the United Nations refugee agency said on Tuesday.
The drought-stricken southern African nation will struggle to provide for the new arrivals, as the 25,000 refugees already in Malawi have been receiving half rations of food aid since October due to funding shortages.
Almost 11,500 Mozambican refugees have crossed into Malawi since December, UNHCR said, most of them going to Kapise, a village five kilometres inside Malawi and some 100 kilometres (60 miles) south of the capital, Lilongwe.
“From around 130 people a day before late February we are now seeing around 250 people every day in Kapise,” UNHCR spokesman Leo Dobbs told a Geneva briefing on Tuesday.
“We need $1.8 million to meet immediate needs, but more will be needed to cope with the growing number of arrivals.”
Mozambicans who arrived earlier in the year spoke of having fled deadly attacks on their villages, he said, while more recent arrivals were fearful of clashes between the government and Renamo guerrillas.
Renamo, Mozambique’s main opposition group, has said it wants to take control of six northern provinces.
Renamo fighters have attacked police outposts near the Malawi border, where they have public support, while government forces retaliate by torching villages where they believe rebels are hiding, security sources say.
Comments
About Author
