Desperate refugees steal villagers' food

Hungry refugees in Zambia have resorted to looting crop fields in nearby villages in a desperate bid to gain access to food, a senior government official said on Friday. "The situation is out of hand, with increasing reports of refugees entering surrounding villages to steal crops and livestock. More worrying is that young girls from the refugee community are being forced into prostitution. The local communities have complained to the government because they are now afraid of growing insecurity in the area," Zambian home affairs permanent secretary, Peter Mumba, told IRIN. In September 2004 UN agencies launched a US $3.2 million appeal to cover the food needs of around 100,000 refugees, mainly from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola, until the end of the year. World Food Programme (WFP) Country Director David Stevenson told IRIN that despite repeated calls for increased assistance, the response from the international donor community had been "cold". UN agencies were forced to halve food rations from October to December, and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) warned that the deteriorating situation was likely to impact on the health of the refugees. "The situation is both desperate and critical. We need the donor community to step up to the plate and assist us - without immediate aid the situation will become dire," Stevenson stressed. He pointed out that in December some donors had indicated an intention to increase assistance to the UN operation, but aid had so far failed to materialise. "Due to our concern over the health status of the refugees, and the fact that we expected additional aid from the donors, we decided that the refugees would receive full rations for the months of January and February [2005]. But unless we receive some cash soon we will be forced to return to half rations again in March," he explained. There was also concern that the food shortages would compromise the voluntary repatriation operation to Angola. The UNHCR, WFP and their partner organisations promised each returnee seven kilograms of maize - down from 14 kg - plus 1.5 kg of pulses, 150 grams of salt and 0.9 litres of oil every month over a two year period, which was then cut down to one year. Mumba said: "For an orderly repatriation exercise to work it is essential that refugees are in a healthy condition. Without the correct calorie intake many will find it difficult to begin their new lives in their home countries. We can appreciate the scale of the problems facing the international community, but we must appeal to donors to intervene and not to forget about the situation among refugees in Zambia."