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Malawi deplores clashes between Hutu-Tutsi refugees

Blantyre, Malawi | AFP |  Malawi on Friday deplored the violent clashes reportedly taking place between rival ethnic groups from Rwanda and Burundi at a refugee camp near the capital Lilongwe, and said they must stop.

There have been clashes in recent weeks between Tutsi and Hutu refugees from Rwanda and Burundi housed at Dzaleka refugee camp in Dowa district on the outskirts of Lilongwe, according to unconfirmed local media reports.

“We as hosts are very disappointed with this behaviour. This must stop forthwith,” Home Affairs and Internal Security Minister Grace Chiumia said in a statement.

“We are here to secure and protect you and when you start fighting because of grudges you have against each other back home, we as hosts are very disappointed with this behaviour.”

The minister did not give details about the feuding refugees.

Malawi’s Nation newspaper on June 5 quoted refugees at the camp as claiming that Hutus were attacking Tutsis there. The paper cited police as saying two murder cases had been opened.

But a district police spokesman Richard Kaponda dismissed the reports.

“It’s not true about the infighting, but there was an isolated incident in which a Burundian attacked a Congolese national at a drinking joint,” Kaponda told AFP.

Ethnic tensions between Hutu and Tutsi ethnic groups led to the 1994 genocide in Rwanda in which around 800,000 mostly Tutsi people were killed.

Dzaleka camp, situated 40 kilometres (25 miles) from Lilongwe, is home to about 29,000 refugees from Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Somalia and Sudan.

United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) officials in Malawi have refused to comment on the alleged violence at Dzaleka.

4 comments

  1. Let Malawi bask a little in the practice matches of genocide. They love interahamwe so much that they keep some as domestics. No wonder the curse has come home to roost….like kenya. Moi was so sure in 1994 that he had found treasure in interahamwe and other scum that he warned the ICTR, when the prosecutor comes here I will arrest him. Now kenya is dancing in all the occurences one would not wish for a friend or neighbour. My advice to malawi, chase the scum back to Rwanda. It is only Kagame who can and knows how to deal with genocidaires.

  2. In Malawi there is no Tutsi refugee from Rwanda, perhaps Tutsi’s from Burundi, if yes they have been disoriented to go with them

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