UNHCR needs $15m for Mozambican refugees

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UNHCR needs $15m for Mozambican refugees

6:01 CAT | 20 May 2016

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is seeking $14.9 million humanitarian assistance to support Mozambican refugees, currently living in Malawi.

“Through this appeal we hope to raise enough funds to support the efforts of the Malawian Government in its humanitarian response. Malawi has hosted refugees for decades and we need to support them in their generosity to assist those most in need,” said Fadela Novak-Irons, UNHCR’s Senior Emergency Coordinator.

Making the appeal in Malawi capital, Lilongwe on Thursday, the official said the majority of Mozambicans refugees are very poor with hardly any means to meet their basic needs.

Novak-Irons said while Malawi at the moment hosts 12 000 Mozambican refugees, “the overall estimated planning figure based on current assumptions is that by the end of 2016 there could be up to 30 000 refugees in Malawi.”

Malawi’s Co-ordinator for Refugees from the Ministry of Home Affairs Bestone Chisamile said the country needs support in order to ensure that the basic needs in terms of food and other non-food items for Mozambican refugees are met in line with international obligations.

Since July last year, Malawi has been receiving asylum seekers from Mozambique’s Tete province, and to a lesser extent from other provinces, who have settled in the border districts of Mwanza, Nsanje and Chikwawa.

The fighting between former rebel group, Mozambique National Resistance (Renamo) and government forces erupted last year when Renamo leader Alfonso Dhlakama, vowed to seize power in six provinces in Mozambique.

His targets for control are provinces of Manica, Sofala, Tete, Zambezia, Nampula and Niassa where his party received a majority of votes in the presidential elections of 2014.

Government reacted by initiating a process of disarming Renamo’s residual rebel forces and hence the continued clashes.

Besides the Mozambican refugees, Malawi also looks after over 25 000 asylum seekers, from the war-torn Great Lakes region of Africa.

Source: News 24