A large stock of medicines was emptied during the night of February 26 to 27 at the Dzaleka camp in Malawi. Refugees who reported this theft to the police found themselves in the dungeons. Theft and insecurity have become commonplace in this very overcrowded camp.

INFO SOS Médias Burundi

The « theft » occurred in the late hours, around 2 a.m. « when no one moves because the whole camp falls asleep here in the camp, » explains a Burundian refugee. It is the central hospital that was the target of what the refugees struggle to describe as « theft ».

Curiously, two refugees who provide paid transport on motorbikes were near this health facility at the time of the incident.

“An ambulance entered the camp and parked right at the entrance to the medicine store. We saw nurses loading several boxes and bags into this ambulance. In a few minutes, it left, taking the main entrance of the camp,” refugees, eyewitnesses of the scene, reported to the police.

“We thought it was a good idea to follow the ambulance with our motorbike, and we saw it disappear into the urban center, precisely in a private health center in the square called ‘PVT CLINIC’. So we came back to alert the police,” they told SOS Médias Burundi.

These two police informants found themselves accused of “complicity with thieves” and “unauthorized night outing,” which annoys their neighbors.

“They are currently held in police cells, while they have accomplished a commendable action, given that we are recommended to help ensure the security of the camp. They should rather be rewarded,” react refugees who confided in SOS Médias Burundi.

Occupants of the Dzaleka camp in Malawi fear the worst for these “two eyewitnesses to throw off the trail and confuse investigators.”

They instead ask the police to make good use of the information received and look for perpetrators of “this organized banditry.”

But they remain skeptical.

“We know in fact that the police and some officials are accomplices in this case. This is not the first time that medicines have been resold in private clinics, but we had no tangible evidence. But now they are caught red-handed,” say refugee intellectuals.

They regret that “medicines are being sold” while there is a glaring lack of pharmaceutical products in the Dzaleka camp. “Every time, they tell us that the stock is empty while they ultimately wait until nightfall to sell our assistance,” they lament.

Refugees are calling on the UNHCR, which is in charge of medical assistance in Dzaleka, to take the matter seriously and follow up closely so that the perpetrators are punished in accordance with the law.

Designed to accommodate 10,000 people, Dzaleka currently hosts over 50,000 refugees.

——

Malawi police officers in a round-up of refugees from the Great Lakes of Africa