Thousands flee Mozambique crackdown on rebel militants

GABORONE: The UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) says the number of Mozambican refugees who have fled an intensifying guerilla war between the government army and Renamo rebels has risen to 11 500, exactly a month after it was estimated at just 3 000.

The UNHCR said yesterday at least 9 600 Mozambican refugees were now living in squalid conditions at the Kapise refugee camp in southern Malawi.

The refugees already at Kapise came mostly from the Tete and Manica provinces which have been hotbeds of sporadic clashes between Renamo and government forces since October.

The UNHCR said it had noted a steady stream of new refugee arrivals from Sofala, Zambezia, Nampula and Niassa, which have been targeted by the army in counter-insurgency operations since Renamo threatened to seize them as part of a plan to carve out an autonomous republic in north-eastern Mozambique.

The commission said it was pleased to note that after initially refusing to consider the Mozambicans as refugees, the Malawian government has accorded them asylum seeker status and agreed to accommodate them at the Luwani refugee camp, which previously housed Mozambique refugees during the 1975-1992 war.

The number of Mozambican refugees fleeing into Malawi has risen from 130 a day in the past two months to at least 250 a day as more people leave their homes ahead of a government offensive in areas claimed by Renamo.

UNHCR representative to Malawi, Monique Ekoko, said the body was struggling to provide for refugees in Malawi. – ANA