Saturday, February 24, 2018

Zambia is not a permanent home for Rwandan refugees, President Lungu says


Rwandan President Kagame and Zambian President Edgar Lungu (right) hold joint press conference in Kigali on February 22, 2018.
Rwandan President Kagame and Zambian President Edgar Lungu (right) hold joint press conference in Kigali on February 22, 2018. PHOTO | RWANDA PRESIDENCY 
By EDMUND KAGIRE
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Zambia will not be a permanent home for Rwandan refugees, President Edgar Lungu declared on Thursday.
President Lungu said that in line with the expiry of the deadline of the cessation clause that ended Rwandan refugee status in December, they have to return home.
“We will not allow a situation where we have permanent refugees in Zambia, whether they are fugitives or those who fled as victims. The bottom line is, we have to put a closure to this chapter,” President Lungu told journalists in Kigali on Thursday.
The Zambian leader completed his two-day state visit in Rwanda where alongside his host President Paul Kagame addressed the media.
Zambia hosts about 4,000 Rwandan refugees who fled in the aftermath of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi including some suspected of being perpetrators of the massacre.
Many of these are reluctant to repatriate as do many other Rwandans in different African countries for economic reasons and/or for fear of possible arrest.

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