OVER 5, 000 DRC REFUGEES ENTER ZAMBIA

… situation worsening, warns UHCR

By SANDRA MACHIMA OVER 5,000 refugees have trekked into Zambia and the United Nations Refugee Agency has warned this could get worse as the displacement of Congolese people continued.

UNHCR spokesperson Adrian Edwards said the agency was increasingly concerned by the escalating displacement it was seeing in several key regions of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

So far about 5, 761 Congolese asylum seekers have been registered in Zambia this year alone.

He said refugees crossing from DRC into neighbouring Zambia were hosted temporarily at the Kenani transit centre, close to the border, receiving assistance from the authorities, UNHCR and partners.

Mr Edwards told the meeting in Geneva that since 2015 the number of people displaced internally had more than doubled and now stands at 3.9 million people, and some among, 428, 000 of these having been displaced in the past three months alone. Mr Edwards said in some areas, scores of civilians had been forced to flee, and there had been reports of murders, looting and extortion, and torture or other inhumane treatment, with people finding it difficult to sustain their livelihoods, and more were becoming dependent on aid.

He said now, UNHCR was coordinating protection activities for the displaced from the Kasai conflict, returnees and other vulnerable civilians.

The agency has also distributed basic relief items and were preparing additional support, and the situation Congo had been graded as deserving highest level of emergency.