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Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama has described as “unfortunate” the lack of assistance to Mozambican refugees in Zimbabwe, and promised to raise the issue with Filipe Nyusi, the president.
According to the Renamo leader, the Mozambicans, whose total number is unknown, took refuge in Zimbabwe because of the political and military tension in Manica province, have been abandoned.
“It is unfortunate. It is unfortunate, but we’re used to it (the lack of government assistance to refugees),” Dhlakama told VOA, recalling the case of Mozambican refugees in Malawi whose existence was initially denied by the government. “Initially they were said to be agricultural workers, and later the wives of Renamo guerrillas,” Dhlakama recalled. “Only with the intervention of United Nations humanitarian agencies die the Mozambican government finally acknowledge their existence.”
The Renamo leader said that he did not expect the same scenario in Zimbabwe, given the friendly relations between Maputo and Harare, but that he would nonetheless address the issue with President Nyusi.
According to VOA, thousands of Mozambicans who sought safety in Zimbabwe in the Chipingue refugee camp near the border with Mossurize district in Manica, where there were “violent clashes between government forces and Renamo” last year, are facing severe hunger and have no food aid.
VOA says the Zimbabwean press recently reported that over 3,000 refugees in improvised camps in Chipinge in southeastern Zimbabwe were facing severe hunger.
According to the Manica Post, the conditions of Mozambicans are often grim, with a lack of both food and water and sanitary facilities in Mutoki village camp.
The number of refugees fleeing to Zimbabwe began to increase last August, when 712 Mozambicans were identified at the camp.
The last recorded food donations “took place in June of last year,” the source said.
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