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Malawi is facing a massive influx of refugees fleeing from the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The World Food Programme (WFP) said that the Dzaleka camp, the only refugee camp in the small, poor southern African country located about 40 km from the capital Lilongwe and initially designed to accommodate 10,000 people, now has nearly 56,000 refugees, the majority of whom are Congolese, according to the WFP
Malawi is facing a massive influx of refugees fleeing from the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The World Food Programme (WFP) said that the Dzaleka camp, the only refugee camp in the small, poor southern African country located about 40 km from the capital Lilongwe and initially designed to accommodate 10,000 people, now has nearly 56,000 refugees, the majority of whom are Congolese, according to the WFP.
According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, 560 new arrivals were recorded in September alone. In March last year, there were just over 49,000 refugees in the camp. The vast majority are Congolese (62%). There are also Burundians (19%) and Rwandans (7%), with the rest coming from Ethiopia and Somalia.
This overpopulation is causing tensions. This week, refugees seized a WFP car to show their displeasure after 600 families were removed from the lists of food distribution beneficiaries, of the 11,000 in the camp.
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Eastern DRC has been plagued by violence from armed groups for nearly three decades, and the fighting has recently intensified between the “March 23 Movement” (M23), a former Tutsi rebellion that has taken up arms, and the Congolese Armed Forces. As reported by www.trendsnafrica.com earlier, more than 232,000 civilians have been displaced since hostilities began in March, according to the U.N. Office of Humanitarian Affairs in the DRC, and at least 183,000 have been displaced since October 20th, when tensions flared.
