Zambia’s President Edgar Lungu has appealed to the international community to scale up interventions to help prevent the escalating refugee influx into northern Zambia from degenerating into a humanitarian crisis.
“The refugee crisis from the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has been worsening since September 2017 and we fear this could lead to a major humanitarian crisis on both sides of the border. We therefore call for increased support from all humanitarian actors,” President Lungu said after touring the Kenani refugee transit centre in Nchelenge district bordering the DRC, the President said.
“This situation will require more preparedness by the Government of Zambia, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), other United Nations (UN) Agencies and Cooperating Partners to receive and assist the new arrivals.”
Since September 2017, the number of confirmed refugees at the transit centre in Luapula Province, Northern Zambia now stands at 6,100 following the escalation of violence in some parts of the DRC. In view of the deteriorating political and security situation in the DRC, the UNHCR Headquarters in Geneva has declared a Level Three Emergency in the Democratic Republic of Congo (the highest possible crisis alert calling all humanitarian actors to preparation and action against an imminent humanitarian crisis.) The focus is that more refugees are expected to flee the DRC into neighbouring countries among them, Zambia.
On a daily basis, between 50 and 100 asylum seekers are entering Zambia fleeing from widespread violence due to the volatile political and security situation in some parts of DRC, especially in the eastern parts of that country bordering Zambia’s Luapula Province. The Zambian government has stepped up security in the area to protect both the refugees and Zambian villages affected by insecurity in the border areas.
Other than Nchelenge and Chiengi borders, DRC refugees have been entering Zambia in small numbers through border points in Nsumbu, Kaputa and Mpulungu district in Northern Province, Kasumbalesa and Sakanya border points on the Copperbelt, as well as Kipushi and Kakoma in North-Western Province bringing the total number of refugees from DRC to over 9,000 as of today.
“The President has established that unless immediate and greater interventions by stakeholders are made the refugee crisis could quickly degenerate into a major humanitarian crisis.”
The Zambian government is working closely with aid agencies under the leadership of the UNHCR to provide asylum seekers with security, basic necessities such as food, shelter and medicines among others. The President has mobilised an assortment of drugs from private sources to beef up the response by Nchelenge district health officials to any possible disease outbreak.
The President has emphasised that the international community must do more to forestall an imminent humanitarian crisis in the border areas where the refugee crisis is concentrated. “To effectively respond to the current emergency, urgent support is needed to provide life saving assistance including food, wash, public health and core-relief items to new arrivals at the transit centre and new settlement. As we move to the new site, a number of critical requirements have to be put in place.”
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Country Coordinator Ms. Janet Rogan, UNHCR Country Representative to Zambia Ms. Pierrine Aylara, Ministers of Home Affairs and Health Steven Kampyongo and Dr. Chitalu Chilufya respectively accompanied the President on the tour of the refugee transit centres.
Looks beautiful there…. why compounds like Chawama, Misisi are not organized like that?
Look at that, they even have blue toilets. Chawama could also have PF-green toilets, organized!
God bless you. Any normal leader would rather be standing with and championing the welfare of these fellow Bantus in distress than scheming with Hitler’s outfits on how to re-subjudicate mama Africa to them as if BSA did not do enough damage. Namibia, Angola, Zimbabwe,SA, Mozambique and rational Zambians understand ills of colonialism. We see no leadership in those stooges.
6,100. A very convenient number I must say.
Kapyongo must be changed, there is nothing he is doing. Market fires, prisons, and now refugees.
Kapyongo given Edgar’s ministry, something wrong.
For how long is Congo DRC continue to bleed?
Mugabeism is goat crap, who else can pf appeal to, mugabe, NO, museveni, NO, kagame, NO, the same people these sons of mugabe abhor and call imperialist they are appealing to, this is like a dog eating it’s own vomit.
This country called congo should be divided into a lot of smaller nations like what Yugoslavia did, why do Africans always want to hold on to big things they can’t handle, some European nations are smaller than some provinces in Zambia, but they are so damn rich and will feed these Congolese with a country the size of Western Europe.
Lets call a spade a spade ..Lazy Lungu if only you were honest to tell your corrupt friend Kabila to step down!!
Zambia, as the most affected country, needs to put boots on the ground in Congo otherwise it will take another century before Congo wars can be over.
Build a wall
You’re not serious are you?
Hah Hah!
Asking for humanitarian aid is a significant effort. However, it’s a short term goal in the process of restoring the dignity of these innocent people. It works as a stop gap measure to cushion direct impact of a vulnerable situation.
The permanent solution is to call for an emergency AU meeting, and garner member support for military intervention. The AU must remove Kabila using military force. He is committing a crime against humanity. America and Europe have NATO. They work together to remove failed governments. Why can’t AU do the same? NATO removed Sadam Hussein, now they’re planning to remove North Korean Leader. AU should do the same thing.
…but you remember the Brazaville meeting he went to and everyone was saying he travels too much???
What do you expect, Kabile is a Mugabe boy just like Lungu. So don’t expect an objective solution. In normal circumstances Kabile’s irresponsible act could have amounted to treason for leaving DRC in a mess.
Even FTJ tried to negotiate for Peace in the Congo. Are there any efforts to smother the situation in Congo by bring together the aggrieved parties to a round table?
The international community are laughing at you……you support the dictator kabila who’s misrule results in wars…
…is everything ok, spaka??? You seem to be losing it….
NOt only is Lazy stupid but very ignorant little does he know that the selfsame international community he is appealing to have been following happenings in DRC since the 1960s!!
manje u5 goes round the globe spending money lookin for self gratification.
he is
proud
arrogant
pompus
selfcentred
tribal
bitter
sturbon
egoistic
when sata was president i used to blog for u5. Some pf zealots would even call Tonga
little did i know,u5 was a morron.
Jameson ran away from an interview in the UK on hard talk people like mugabe are hard core and can still feature and defend themselves and their Zimbabwe on such heated interviews
Ifintu nafilungula
Come on give the man (HH) a bells he has the bolls not balya njikwite.
u5 should tell these whites to stop sending guns. they are his friends. but we know while they are feating him in europ they are busy lootin.
Signs of a lazy bunch of people; always blaming others for their own failings, blaming HH and Tongas, bitterness , jealousy etc …some of you being critical of the so called imperialists from whom you’re forever begging for hand outs , and now appealing to international community. Let’s see if this problem will be resolved by Zambia and the AU , without the intervention from the west.
The reason why we are so backward as a continent is because we dont stop these primitive tribal conflicts such as some of you commenting here , and we are always living in the past _ “imperialists did this, so and so should not attend London !!!”.
We don’t want any help from white imperialists. The west has failed to discipline Kabila. We are sending Jonathan and Mpyongo to sort this issue out. This is an african problem that require an african solution.
The white supremacists have brought more harm than good. We need to be allowed to find our own path. Smart phones, Internet cars, western fashion, education and medicine need to be discontinued with immediate effect. We are going back to our roots. Let there be light on this beautiful dark continent.
Dr chaos who has donated those tents?
It is lungu and his fellow despots who support kabila….
Those must have been donated by Jonathan through the DMMU. Don’t underestimate the man.
Were it not for its mineral wealth, Congo DRC would long have stabilized politically and economically. Human greed is the cause of the seemingly never ending violence in that country.
Why ask for help from imperialists when it’s an African problem that could sorted by Africans? Pilgrim, Canicius Banda what’s your take on this? Assuming Edgar Lungu succeeds in mobilising support from the imperialists in the name of aid and succeeds then somebody from the alleged imperialists tribe gives him an award, would that count? Like you said, African problems should be solved by Africans! So Edgar, focus on mobilising African governments and organisations in your quest to portray a good image!!
Do you even understand the Geopolitics at play in the DRC? If this wasn’t an “imperialist” caused problem, Africans would have solved it a long time ago. The CURSE of Africa since imperialists discovered it her is its NATURAL RESOURCES, mostly Minerals. This is the curse that has plagued DRC since the Belgians sort of “left” Congo but not really. No African Country is in Congo looting and propping up Kabila on one hand and funding insurgents (through Rwanda) at the same time, while stripping clean that Country’s wealth. Do ever wonder why Paul Kagame is a “darling” of the West despite his Autocratic leadership tendencies in Rwanda?
If “imperialists” cared even a fraction about the lives of poor Congolese, the senseless fighting and killing in Congo would stop tomorrow. BUT…
continue:
… NOOOO! Someone is PROFETING big time out of the chaos. And you can bet it isn’t a black African. So the call to “imperialists” to help take care of the refugee problem they are creating inside and outside of DRC is well placed and timely. Especially on the part of Zambia which has endured a disproportionate burden of DRC problems for a long time.
Joseph Kabila and HH are the same.look,Kabila has ruled Congo DR since 2001 or 2002 minus calling for any convention in his party.plus he doesnt want to step down after finishing all his terms in office.HH has been “cuundu chaitwa ” upnd chairman since 2006.he has never called for any convention ever since.if HH ruled Zambia,he cannot hand over power after 10 yrs.he has led upnd for more than 10yrs.these are clear signs of a dictator!!!
BRAVO TO EDGAR LUNGU FOR HELPING OUR FELLOW AFRICANS!!ECL,YOU ARE A TRUE AFRICAN LEADER unlike Kainde who dances to the tune of emperialists.AS ECL IS HELPING OUR PEOPLE,HH IS BUSY DINNING WITH COLONIAL MASTERS IN UK-AMAZING!!!Kainde,you must tell those colonialists to come and vote for you in 2021 together with your bantustans BECAUSE IN 6.5 PROVINCES…
Hehehehe ba njimbu, it is lungu who supports his fellow dictator kabila.. ..kabila wants to extend his terms in office just like lungu…….hehehe
Continue….
BECAUSE IN 6.5 PROVINCES HH WILL LOSE BADLY IN 2021-MARK MY WORDS!!!
6.5 goat crap.
What a bunch of hypocrites we are Africans! Ever talking about imperialists for problems of our creation! We are the corrupt lot who steal elections and change constitutions to perpetuate the suffering of our people and then bank money into these same imperialist countries. Who is to blame? Today you are calling HH a hyprpctrite for dining with imperialists and Mutati is trotting the globe begging he IMF to bail him out? Who is about to default on the Eurobond, HH? Who is worse, an imperialist or a tribalism who cannot see eye to eye with fellow liberators? Hypocrites, pretenders, opprtuniists, failures. Africans!
LETS RECALL KALABA, SINKALA AND MBESUMA FROM DRC ITS DANGEROUS PLAYING THEIR WHEN THEY ARE FIGHTING AND ZAMBIA U ARE COMPLAINING THAT U HAVE NO MONEY TO KEEP REFUGEES AND YET 42 FOR 42 IS OK
Zambia’s filthy Chibolya and Misisi would feel very envious at the immaculate organization and no open sewers at these camps.
Even FTJ tried to negotiate for Peace in the Congo. Are there any efforts to smother the situation in Congo by bring together the aggrieved parties to a round table?