IRIN Focus on Kala camp

It had been a busy morning for UNHCR programme officer Emanuel Egyir. On top of his normal duties he’d been negotiating with a local carpenter for more coffins. As the rainy season begins in northern Zambia, malaria and other diseases are taking their toll on the thousands of Congolese refugees living in squalid conditions at Kala camp. “We’re losing one or two a day now,” Egyir told IRIN. Although UNHCR was taken by surprise by the recent flood of refugees fleeing a rebel offensive in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), they’ve been able to provide food and basic shelter to the swelling numbers. The huge camp, about 30 km from the town of Kawambwa was home to 2,400 refugees, but fighting in November and December for the DRC towns of Pepa and Pweto has meant the camp is now four times as big. “There are now more than 11,000 refugees here,” said Egyir. Laurent is just 17. He was picking his way along a muddy path from his temporary shelter to the MSF-run clinic in the camp when IRIN visited on Friday. He lived in Pweto until four weeks ago when he fled a rebel assault on the town. He was supporting his sick mother with one hand and trying to keep the driving rain off her with the other. “After we left Pweto we walked for two days to Chiengi in Zambia, mum has malaria I think, but we get help here and enough food to sustain ourselves, I just want to go home,” he said. MSF-Holland has been working flat out to provide basic medical care to the thousands of new arrivals. “Malaria is our biggest problem,” said exhausted MSF doctor Joanna Cox from her makeshift clinic of sticks and plastic sheeting. “The refugees don’t come forward early enough for treatment which makes caring for them quite difficult,” she added. Some of the refugees prefer to go to traditional healers instead of the clinic, meaning that when they are eventually treated often it’s too late. Every other Friday is food distribution day at Kala. Its a mad scramble through the mud as the meagre ration of flour, beans, cooking oil and salt is handed out. The refugees also get a credit card sized bar of soap with which to keep themselves and their ragged clothes clean. With so many mouths to feed the process must continue despite the heavy rain. Maria has four children to feed. She’s been in Kala camp since August, when she trudged more than 120 km after government soldiers told her the advancing rebel force would kill her. With two grubby children clinging to her soaking dress she tried to stop the rain turning her fortnightly food supply into an inedible slop. On Emanuel Egyir’s daily visit to the camp he’s accosted wherever he goes: Problems with the water supply, complaints about the food, does he have news about the war? Any word on a lost relative? “Of course its tough for these people,” he said, “but in some ways they’re better off than the locals, with free food and adequate health care, in fact we’ve had some Zambians trying to become refugees!” But looking at row upon row of sad faces peering from their crude shelters it’s difficult to believe anybody would be here by choice. The camp only houses Congolese refugees. There’s a deep mistrust of Rwandans and Burundians, who the refugees hold responsible for their misfortune. “Our (DRC) soldiers are fighting a war to rid our country of foreign invaders,” one of the refugee leaders told IRIN. Three weeks ago an aid worker at the camp was mistaken for a Rwandan and pelted with stones by a mob of angry residents. There are also a number of former DRC soldiers mingling with the refugees. But community leaders have promised to cooperate with UNHCR in weeding them out. Aid agencies at Kala look set for the long haul. Infrastructure is being laid for at least 25,000 refugees. Fields are being cleared for planting, administration and security buildings are being erected and some of the shelters the refugees have built are taking on an air of permanence. With the 1999 Lusaka peace accord showing no signs of being heeded by the combatants, Kala will probably be home to refugees like Laurent for a long time to come.