DOWA, Malawi, July 12 (Xinhua) -- Malawi Police Service reported an increase in defilement and general theft cases at the Dzaleka Refugee Camp due to congestion and cuts in food rations.
"From January to June, the Dzaleka camp alone has registered 23 criminal cases including eight house-breaking and six sexual assaults," Charles Nsitu, district police officer in charge of Dowa, a district in central Malawi where the refugee camp is situated, told Xinhua Thursday.
Some refugees and asylum seekers stole crops from neighboring fields, Nsitu said.
In November last year, the United Nations (UN) in Malawi appealed to the international community for 4.2 million U.S. dollars for 2019 to support about 35,000 refugees and asylum seekers at the camp as the UN Refugee Agency and World Food Programme were going to face imminent disruption of food assistance.
"Without additional funding, food rations will be suspended from next January, the peak of the lean season between harvests," said the UN in Malawi last November. "That would risk reversing gains made to date in tackling malnutrition."
The population at the refugee camp has been growing rapidly over the years, and it is now of more than 40,000, according to the East African country's National Statistical Office.
Due to limited access to arable land and other means of making a living, the displaced are largely dependent on outside help, according to the UN in Malawi.
The camp accommodates refugees and asylum seekers mainly from the African Great Lakes region, including Burundi, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
