The Zambian government has appealed for increased funding from humanitarian and development donor countries to support the refugee operations across the country in 2019.
While revealing that there has been no major influx of refugees coming into the country, Commissioner for Refugees in the Ministry of Home Affairs, Abdon Mwere, said the numbers had gone up between 2017 till date, with the number of new arrivals averaging 700 asylum seekers per month.
He said more funding was required to provide critical humanitarian assistance to the refugees as well as the host communities, adding that critical needs range from food, shelter, infrastructure as well social services in various refugee camps dotted across the southern African nation.
In January alone, a total of 1, 162 refugees and asylum seekers have been received in Zambia with 1, 056 from the Democratic Republic of Congo , he said in a release.
He
added that the country received a total of 9,371 refugees in 2018, with the
majority from the DRC
