Malawi buries its dead as 1 000 more xenophobia victims arrive home
Atleast 18 more buses carrying about 65 Malawians each arrived in the country on Monday as part of government’s xenophobia victims’ repatriation process, the Department of Disaster Management Affairs (Dodma) has said.
Two dead bodies, a woman and a young man were buried yesterday after being repatriated on Monday. The two killed in South Africa, were taken back to their respective homes of Luchenza in Thyolo and Chikwawa.
Dodma Principal Secretary Paul Chinguzeni told The Nation the repatriation process is still ongoing as there are some Malawians who are still checking into some camps.
Over 3 900 Malawians were affected with the South African attacks on migrants.
Chiunguzeni said: “The buses should have arrived some days ago but were delayed because we were working on the repatriation of the two dead bodies.
“Upon arrival in Blantyre on Monday, those repatriated, who are mainly from Mangochi, were transported straight to their homes.”
This is the third group of Malawians to be repatriated from South Africa. The first batch of 390 individuals came in six buses while the second batch comprising 541 individuals arrived in eight buses. The buses arrived in Blantyre on April 20 and April 24 respectively.
According to government, at the moment, the total number of those dead is seven, with three of them dying in transit as they were fleeing South Africa.
The xenophobic attacks in South Africa started about four weeks ago in Durban following remarks allegedly made by King Goodwill Zwelithini accusing foreign nationals of depriving natives of jobs.
