The Sunday Mail
Shamiso Yikoniko and Livingstone Marufu —
Government has extended food assistance to residents of Tongogara Refugee Camp (TRC), a Cabinet minister has said.
The State is working on modalities to raise more financial and other resources to meet the health, water and sanitation, and food requirements of the refugees and asylum seekers.
United Nations High Commission for Refugees monthly food rations consist of 10kg maize meal per individual, 2kg of sugar beans, 2kg of a corn-soya blend, 2kg of rice, 750ml vegetable oil, 500g of sugar and 250g of salt.
Zimbabwe continues to experience an influx of refugees and asylum seekers at TRC, with at least 250 arriving every month.
Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Minister Prisca Mupfumira told The Sunday Mail Extra last week that while Government was still assessing the situation at the camp, there was enough food at the moment.
“As of this week alone, we have sent food stuffs such as maize, flour, rice and cooking oil to ensure that they don’t starve. We have plenty of refugees at Tongogara Refugee Camp whom we are giving food and shelter and we have sent a number of teams to assess the situation at the refugee camp for future planning,” she said.
The minister said their focus was addressing the immediate needs of the refugees, adding that Government’s commitment to their welfare was in line with international instruments.
A recent joint assessment mission report by the UNHCR revealed that asylum-seekers cross into Zimbabwe through border posts or unofficial points of entry and make their own way to Tongogara.
Zimbabwe continues to be the destination of choice for refugees fleeing the troubled Horn of Africa, the Great Lakes region, and neighbouring Mozambique where there is an insurgency threat, as well as far off countries like Bangladesh.
Some of them try to then move to South Africa.
Indications are that even those who came from countries that are now peaceful refuse to return to their homes as they are satisfied with life at TRC.
As of December 2016, Tongogara Refugee Camp had 8 100 refugees and asylum seekers.
TRC has refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Egypt, Mali, Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Cote d’Ivoire among others.
They are mostly single women and men, the elderly, the chronically ill people and unaccompanied minors with some five percent of assisted families being child-headed households.
Government, UNHCR and the World Food Programme have started relocating the refugees from irregular settlements to Tongogara Refugee Camp.
Recently, Government completed the relocation of 691 Mozambicans who were temporarily housed in Chipinge South.
WFP Zimbabwe country representative Eddie Rowe said they are in constant liason with UNHCR as they closely monitored the situation and provided support to refugees.
“On a monthly basis, WFP provides sufficient cash assistance to each refugee to cover his or her fully daily energy intake requirements,” explained Mr Rowe.
“Chronically ill people are receiving a top-up of super cereal by health staff at the clinics, while new arrivals are receiving an in-kind transfer (until they are registered) to cover the potential food gap between arrival and the start of regular distributions.”
WFP used US$1,3 million from the US Embassy in Harare and its own resources to cover refugees’ needs from April to December 2016.
Minister Mupfumira said Government had engaged the corporate world to help refugees in eastern Zimbabwe.
“We are now mobilising various stakeholders who can help us to supply the refugees with the basic necessities as the total number of refugees have increased to around 8 500 as of last week,” she said. “As a result we need extra help to sufficiently feed the refugees.”
WFP is working with Government to see how best to help refugees build their own livelihood resilience.
The WFP says it urgently needs more than US$2,3 million to support refugees between April and December 2017.
WFP provides cash transfers for the general refugee population, equivalent to a complete food basket consisting of maize meal, pulses, oil, sugar and salt, which is intended to meet a person’s full daily energy requirements.
“A total of 399 refugees households have been provided with small plots of land to this end, and each household has 500 square meters under irrigation to which they grow bananas, sugar beans, maize and potatoes,” said Mr Rowe.
The refugee camp has 25 hectares of irrigated land.
Minister Mupfumira said Acting Commissioner for Refugees Mr Snedon Shoko, the Chipinge local leadership, and TRC administrator Mr Misheck Zengeya said they needed tents after rains destroyed 20 huts.
Shortages of classroom blocks and learning materials have affected 265 Mozambicans studying at Tongogara Primary School.
Government has generally upped food distribution across all provinces as the country navigates the lean January-March period.
Food is distributed to everyone, including in urban areas, regardless of political and religious affiliations.
Tongogara was established in 1984 to house Mozambican refugees, and after more than 30 years of operation, it looks more like a village than a camp.
There are permanent structures with electricity, schools, churches, a mosque, a police post, shops, bars, and a clinic.
