Seven victims of Lake Mwerudu boat accident accounted for
Zambian authorities have retrieved the seven bodies of Congolese refugees who drowned while escaping from a transit centre north of the country.
“The three bodies, which had remained, from the initial seven, were retrieved today,” said police spokeswoman Esther Katongo.
The seven Congolese nationals drowned after their boat capsized in Lake Mwerudu due to strong winds.
Causing death
Those who died were part of the 35 Congolese who had escaped from Kenani Refugee Transit Centre in the neighbouring Nchelenge District of Luapula Province, in a bid to go back to their country.
A 21-year-old Zambian coxswain was arrested for causing death by dangerous navigation.
Thousands of Congolese have fled across the border to Zambia, especially since late last August, triggering an emergency response from refugee agency UNHCR, which has struggled to provide basic food rations and shelter.
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DR Congo's huge eastern region has long been wracked by violence, but fighting between government soldiers and militia groups, as well as inter-ethnic clashes, have also been heightening.
UNHCR said the unrest had caused the largest influx into Zambia for the past five years, with many refugees blaming DR Congo President Joseph Kabila's troops for the worst of the violence.
President Kabila failed to step down after his second and final term in December 2016.
Response plan
Elections were re-scheduled for 2017, but have now been announced for December 2018.
Zambia says it was looking to raise over $74.2 million to respond to the Congolese emergency in the country.
Home Affairs minister Stephen Kampyongo said the government would soon launch the regional refugee response plan in Lusaka to appeal to the international community and the private sector to respond to the Congolese emergency.