Refugee crisis deepens

...about 100 Congolese refugees are entering Zambia every day due to war

In Nchelenge

ABOUT 100 Congolese refugees are daily, entering the country through Chiengi district in Luapula province, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has revealed.

So far about 6,000 Congolese have escaped their country to Zambia for fear of being killed for opposing President Kabila’s regime decision to postpone elections.

About 60 percent of those entering Zambia are below the age of 18 years.

UNHCR has described the situation as an international humanitarian crisis currently being managed very well by the Zambian government.

Today, Republican President Edgar Lungu is expected in Chiengi district (Luapula) to have an on the spot check of the situation.

Speaking at Kenani Refugee Transit Centre, Presidential spokesperson Amos Chanda said President Lungu will travel with different humanitarian actors such as United Nations (UN) resident coordinator Janet Rogan.

“The main concern of the President is that going into the rain season he wants to scale up interventions so he will be urging the international community to do more in their intervention to prevent the refugee situation from escalating into a humanitarian crisis.

“From the assessment he has been given, all indicate that the situation is getting worse by the day,” he said.

Meanwhile, Commissioner for Refugees from the ministry of Home Affairs Abdon Mawere explained that the refugee situation worsened, became critical in August after receiving about 634 Congolese refugees through border points in Chiengi district.

He said the land was given by chief Kambwali in September.

“We had a duty to find a place where we needed to settle these people quickly. At the beginning we kept them at a school at the border area and when schools were about to open we were pressed to find them where we could properly take care of them and that was how Chief Kambwali offered us land where we have built a transit centre (camp) called Kenani transit centre,” he said.

He said currently he had almost 5,890 refugees at the transit centre while 60 refugees as of yesterday were at the border on their way into Zambia.

UNHCR country representative Pierrine Aylara thanked the Zambian government and the population of Chiengi for the generosity because it was not easy to host over 5,000 people in two months time.

Mrs Aylara said the role of UNHCR was to join government as burden sharing partner to make sure that refugees have better living conditions.