Some Mozambican flood victims residing in camps in Malawi claim they are being sidelined in the distribution of relief items because of their nationality.

The Department of Disaster Management Affairs (Dodma) has since said it is following with interest the concerns, saying relief items are meant for every victim regardless of their nationality.

The issue came to the light after Mozambican survivors of Tropical Storm Ana at the centre in Nsanje asked the district commissioner to move them to their own camp where they could easily access relief items.

The Mozambicans’ representative at the camp, Shika Yamikani, said apart from being verbally insulted, some Malawians are denying them access to relief items which the camp receives from well-wishers.

Tropical Storm Ana survivors queue to receive relief support in Nsanje

She said so far they have only received relief food once, yet their Malawian counterparts have received the same on countless times.

“We are being tortured left, right centre simply because we are from Mozambique. We did not wish for this bad luck but it has just happened as it would have happened to any other person,” Yamikani lamented.

She added that they have since petitioned Nsanje district commissioner to facilitate their relocation to a place they can stay on their own in “peace”.

“Different organisations and well-wishers have been coming here with relief items but the camp committee, comprising Malawians only, has been sidelining us,” she said.

Nthole Evacuation Centre manager Charles Bishop confirmed that Mozambicans are not benefitting from some donations.

In a separate interview, Bishop claimed that some donors specify who should receive their donation, but he declined to name such donors.

“It is true that sometimes we are not sharing with them the relief items as we have been advised that the donation was meant for Malawians. Even if it were you, what would you do?” asked Bishop.

He added that when the donor has not specified recipients of their donation, the Mozambicans also benefit.

Bishop faulted the Mozambicans for lying to the donors that Malawians were misusing the relief items.

“They have been lying to some donors that we are abusing the donation. On several occasions we have been barring them from meeting donors. They have no courtesy and you cannot like them when they become rude,” he said.

Nsanje District Council spokesperson Robert Najeya said they have not received any complaint from the Mozambicans at the camp.

But Dodma spokesperson Chipiliro Khamula said relief items should be given to every victim.

 Khamula insisted that relief items are meant for every storm survivor regardless of nationality.

He said: “Sidelining someone from receiving donations because of nationality is a violation of principles of humanitarian approach. As a government, we cannot tolerate that because our focus is to reach out to all with the relief support.”

Khamula added that in the past incidents, Mozambicans have been benefiting from relief support “and it cannot just change overnight”.

He assured that the department will follow up the Mozambicans’ complaint.

Meanwhile, the Natural Resources and Climate Change Committee of Parliament has urged the government to fast-track tabling of a Disaster Management Bill which, among other things, seeks direct budgetary allocation to Dodma.

According to the committee’s chairperson Welani Chilenga, such a law will help Dodma to have its own vote in the national budget as opposed to the current situation whereby Dodma draws its funding from unforeseen vote, which is usually not enough.

“There are some situations in which Dodma cannot respond to disasters simply because they don’t have their own money. We will push for them to have their own vote,” he said

So far, this year’s floods have affected about 117 490 people in Nsanje alone while the national figure stands at over 900 000, with over 40 confirmed dead.

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