Mozambique decries conditions of its refugees in Malawi

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Mozambique decries conditions of its refugees in Malawi

9:46 CAT | 17 Feb 2016

Reuters (File) / Most of the Mzambican refugees in Malawi are women and children.

The Mozambican government has expressed concern over the deplorable conditions in which its citizens are living in Kapise Refugee Camp in neighbouring Malawi, APA learns here on Monday.The camp shelters Mozambican citizens who fled their country because of insecurity in their region caused by the presence of armed men of the former rebel Renamo movement who, now and then clash with the country’s armed defence and security forces.

The plight of these people in Malawi led the Mozambican government to send Foreign Minister Oldemiro Baloi to assess the situation, discuss it with the Malawian government how to improve the situation of Mozambicans in the camp and how to return them home.

Although Baloi recognized that his fellow country men and women are free to live in any other country, the over 4,000 refugees in Capici are living under deplorable conditions.

This, he explained, is why he thinks the best solution is for them to return home where they can produce and live well like they always did after the 1992 Rome peace agreement signed with the ex-rebel Renamo movement.

Baloi was speaking immediately after visiting the Kapise camp in Malawi.

“Your best place people, the way I see here, is your homes where you can produce, children can study. Peace is something good. That’s why since the signing of the peace accord in 1992, a lot has been done by all of us. We gradually built roads, schools, hospitals, water supply facilities and markets. All this happened with everybody’s help,” Baloi is quoted by state-controlled Radio Mozambique as saying after visiting the camp at the weekend.

Baloi explained that Mozambicans are free to live in any other country like it has been happening in South Africa, Zambia, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and elsewhere in Malawi. But, he insisted that the conditions under which Mozambicans are living in Kapise were not satisfactory. Therefore, he urged people in Kapise to return home.

“Now, when people abandon their place of origin to come and live under these conditions. This is worrying and is not what the government wants. Therefore, we have to continue working with the Malawi authorities and organizations and have a common thought: to create conditions so that you can return home and resume the life you led before and not this way,” he added.

Analysts in Maputo say the Mozambican government must first create stability and good security conditions before rushing people back home, in Mozambique, where sometimes they are forced to sleep in the bush because of clashes between armed Renamo militia and members of the country’s defence and security forces.

Source: APA