UN warns of 'life-threatening' food crisis in Malawi refugee camp

Nearly 60,000 people could face “life-threatening” hunger in Malawi’s Dzaleka refugee camp as funding for food aid is set to expire by June, United Nations representatives told AFP Wednesday.

Over 57,000 refugees and asylum seekers live in the overcrowded Dzaleka camp, about 40 kilometres (25 miles) north of Lilongwe, most of them from the conflict-torn Democratic Republic of Congo as well as Rwanda and Burundi.

They are entirely dependent on cash-based food assistance and have no means of subsistence as Malawi restricts refugee employment, but the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) only had enough funding to last until June.

“This is really life-threatening,” WFP country director Hyoung-Joon Lim told AFP.

“The WFP is a lifeline for all the refugees,” he said, adding that “beyond June, we do not know what will happen”.

The Rome-based agency last year already warned of an “unprecedented crisis” as the United States heavily slashed foreign aid and other key donor countries also tightened their belts.

The agency had already been forced to slash rations in Dzaleka camp, meeting “only 60 percent” of food needs, Lim said.

Malawi’s government has enforced a strict encampment policy since March 2023, when authorities ordered all refugees living in urban and rural areas to relocate to Dzaleka.

Since then, thousands have been forcibly rounded up by police and military, their businesses shuttered and families transferred to the camp, which now holds more than six times its intended capacity of 10,000.

Lim told AFP the combination of overcrowding and hunger fostered instability, including children dropping out of school and girls turning to “transactional sex” to survive.

“If refugees are allowed to work and live outside … then they would be more sustainable,” he said.