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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