Imagine fleeing from your home because you feel unprotected
by the people who are required to so by law. And when you get to where you feel
safer, the very same people come to persuade your keepers to let you come back
with them, claiming you are running away from nothing! Well, this is the
situation some 5,800 Mozambican nationals have found themselves in. Hundreds of
them, including unaccompanied children, have been fleeing from Tete Province,
near the Malawi border, since late last year following renewed fighting between
government forces and opposition Renamo fighters.
The province is said to be one of the strongholds of Renamo,
and the people say they are running away because allegedly government forces
have been attacking them for supporting Renamo. They have since fled to Kapise
village in Mwanza district in Southern Malawi, 300 meters from the border.
About two-thirds of the refugees are women and children mostly below five years
old, as well as the elderly. The refugees, whose numbers continue to steadily
rise every day, are living in desperate conditions at the camp scrambling for
necessities with 150 local families there.
A statement from Medicines San Frontiers (MSF) says that
refugees do not have enough water and sanitation facilities, have poor housing,
and are at risk of diseases. They are also in fear of getting attacked by
soldiers from their country. A two month-old baby died of diarrhoea at the camp
last month. And last week alone, MSF, which set up a clinic at the camp,
treated over 380 malaria cases. Even worse, the Malawi government is under
pressure from Mozambique not to recognize the people as refugees, according to
MSF. Doctors without Borders says Mozambique sent several delegates to the camp
to try and persuade the displaced people to come back, arguing that there was
no conflict back home. However Mozambican media reports indicate that tensions
have increased in recent weeks in Tete, Zambezia and Sofala provinces, with
daily attacks and shootings. MSF, which started its intervention there in
November 2015, has since appealed to the Malawi government to move the people
to a more spacious camp, 50 kilometers from Kapise, and also away from the
border as required by international humanitarian standards.
The alternative location, Luwani, a former refugee camp, is
said to be the best option for the displaced people as it has plenty of space,
a school, medical centre and a better road. Furthermore, the move, according to
MSF, would also allow humanitarian actors such as the UNHCR, to plan
appropriate services to meet the needs of the displaced community. At a recent
press briefing in Blantyre, MSF’s head of mission to Malawi, Maury Gregoire,
said they are treating about 159 people every day, with half diagnosed with
malaria and the rest having respiratory infections and general body pain. He
said the refugees only have 14 latrines whereas the respect of minimum
humanitarian conditions requires that at least 20 people have one latrine or in
worst case scenarios one latrine for 50 people. According to Gregoire, people
have only two boreholes for both domestic and general use: “Each person has on
average eight litres of water a day, barely enough to drink and cook and well
below the minimum 15 to 20 litres are recommended as a humanitarian minimum in
emergency settings.”
MSF has since warned that the strain by the refugees could
cause tensions with Malawian families living in the village, especially on
access to water. But Malawian authorities are not yet decided on whether to
move the refugees or send them back home. Principal Secretary in the Ministry
of Home Affairs Beston Chisamile told The Nation newspaper on Thursday that
they were still discussing the matter with Mozambican authorities. “Our friends
in Mozambique want these people to go back home, so unless a decision is made
between the two parties that they should remain in Malawi, then we can start
thinking about moving them to a different place,” he said.
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees-UNHCR
representative to Malawi Monique Ekoko recently appealed to donors and other
humanitarian organisations for more funding to help the refugees. Malawi has
hosted refugees from Mozambique before. The Luwani Camp hosted over one million
Mozambican refugees who fled from their country’s 16 year civil war between
1977 and 1992. The country is currently facing a tough economic situation of
high inflation and interest rates which has left many people struggling to
survive. It is estimated that about 2.8 million Malawians themselves are in
need of food aid following last season’s dry spell and floods. A report by the
Malawi Vulnerability Assessment Committee says about K23 billion (about US$18
million) is needed to feed such people up to the next harvest.
No comments:
Post a Comment