Refugees threaten Zim

Source: Refugees threaten Zim – DailyNews Live

Bernard Chiketo at TONGOGARA REFUGEE CAMP      24 April 2017

CHIPINGE – The security of Zimbabwean communities along the Mozambican
border may not be guaranteed after the influx of over 10 000 people
fleeing the Renamo insurgency, the Daily News can report.

At least 5 546 of these are Mozambican nationals while a further 5 319 are
Zimbabwean returnees, according to a government report.

All the Mozambicans are unwilling to be admitted into Tongogara Refugee
Camp (TRC) in which thorough screening against Renamo bandit infiltration
would be conducted.

“However, only 88 Mozambicans indicated that they are willing to relocate
to Tongogara Refugee Camp representing only 0,016 percent while 5 458
(99,9 percent) indicate that they are unwilling to relocate to TRC,”
Johanne Mhlanga, a refugee status determination officer said.

Currently, there are only 864 Mozambican asylum seekers in the camp and 20
Zimbabwean nationals who are spouses of the Mozambicans, he said from the
report.

The stability of the region, from Nyanga down to Chipinge, is further
worsened by the relocation of an additional 5 574 from a buffer zone along
the border further into the country placing the communities on edge of
conflict.

“Mozambicans in Zimbabwe are currently 5 546 – 2 696 in Chipinge East, 2
435 in Chipinge South and Musikavanhu constituencies and 415 in Nyanga
North.

“Zimbabwean returnees are 5 319 – 472 in Nyanga, 1 175 in Chipinge East
while Musikavanhu and Chipinge South have 3 672.

“5 574 Zimbabweans were relocated from the buffer zone,” Mhlanga said
while delivering an abridged version of the report during a recent tour of
TRC by Social Welfare minister Prisca Mupfumira.

The census was conducted to verify the credibility of media reports
claiming that there were thousands of Mozambicans who had melted into
villages in Chipinge, Mhlanga said.

Although TRC administrator Meshack Zengeya acknowledged that the
Mozambican refugees were screened to weed out infiltration by Renamo
bandits,  the brief to Mupfumira did not say what the huge numbers of
Mozambicans along the border communities meant to the stability of their
host communities.

Last December, a Mozambican man who had fled the conflict was abducted and
later killed back in Mozambique.

Over the same period, nearly 50 cattle were also taken by a band of armed
men.

A December 10-dated security brief from Chisumbanje police station says
the cattle were taken by “15 suspected Mozambican soldiers armed with AK
47 rifles” and when police visited the Zamuchiya area where the cattle
were taken they saw “five suspected Mozambican soldiers and some civilians
with machetes and knobkerries”.

Zimbabwe responded by sending the army to secure the border communities.

But the sheer numbers of Mozambicans remain a potent security threat once
the skirmishes resume if the current ceasefire which is expected to expire
on May 5 collapses.

“The man who was abducted back to Mozambique and killed may not have been
a random victim of a senseless conflict but was carefully picked up.

“We are in no way screening these immigrants and allowing them to settle
among ordinary villagers risking their safety,” a Mapungwana village head
who spoke on condition of anonymity said.

“Our government is messing up its refugee processing protocol and it may
cost the nation its peace,” he said.

Zanu PF Chipinge South legislator Enock Porusingazi agreed in an earlier
interview that the refugees need to be placed in appropriate facilities
for their safety and the preservation of peace.

“Once a person flees from war or terror he is classified a refugee and
should be quarantined in a camp for safety and protection. Once let loose
he might also be a threat to others,” Porusingazi said.

In other reports, on October 20, 2016 two suspected Mozambican soldiers
and 25 men armed with bows and arrows crossed the border into Nyanga
rounding up four refugees and their cattle from Nyamutenha Village, Ward
11 where they had settled, locals said.

They were reportedly taken to Nyabutu Camp. Their fate remains unknown.

And locals have bad memories of involvement in the Mozambican civil war.

Renamo rebels have ravaged border communities for food and recruits often
committing horrendous acts of terrorism.

In one of the most brutal attacks in 1987, Renamo bandits attacked a
school in Chipinge on November 19 where they killed five children before
kidnapping nine others whom they later returned with cut off ears and
noses.

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