Over 500 Congolese asylum-seekers have fled into Zambia

Pierrine Aylara

Over 500 Congolese asylum-seekers have fled into Zambia, the biggest single entry of new arrivals in three years.

UNHCR Representative to Zambia, Pierrine Aylara says the asylum seekers were received today,Wednesday 30^th August,2017 through Chiengi,Kamponge and other border entry points in the northern part of the country.

Ms Aylara  says it is believed that more are being hosted by the local community, and that the agency working with local authorities is conducting a head-count to ascertain the exact figures as the new arrivals are entering through different border entry points some of which are un-manned.

She says the new arrivals are in addition to the sporadic and continuous stream that has characterized refugee inflows from the neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) into Zambia over the past three years.

Ms. Aylara says UNHCR is working with the Government through the Office of the Commissioner for Refugees (COR) in the Ministry of Home Affairs and, specifically, the District Joint Operations Committee (DJOC), as well as the Zambia Red Cross Society, to provide basic humanitarian assistance to the new arrivals and who are being relocated to Meheba Refugee Settlement in North Western province.

In a statement made available to Q-News, Ms. Aylara says the UNHCR has continuously been receiving a steady inflow of new arrivals from the DRC for some time now.

Ms. Aylara says limited resources available make it challenging for the agency to effectively respond to the silent emergency.

She has since appealed to donors to assist with additional funds to enable the UNHCR address the basic humanitarian needs of new arrivals.

From 1st January to 31st August 2017, over 3, 000 asylum-seekers from the DRC have been arrived in Zambia cumulatively, with August alone accounting for about a 1,000.