Civil Situation Improved

NEWS
3 June 2008
Posted to the web 3 June 2008
Maputo

The Mozambican government on Monday lifted the emergency situation decreed a fortnight ago to cope with the exodus of Mozambicans fleeing from anti-foreigner pogroms in South Africa.

A statement issued by the government's Disaster Management Coordinating Council (CCGC) noted that the number of violent incidents in South Africa had fallen, and most of the Mozambicans who are currently sheltering in temporary accommodation centres in South Africa have said they do not wish to return to Mozambique.

Instead they are waiting for calm to return, and will then try to go back to their residential areas in South Africa. (There are thought to be about 12,000 Mozambicans in these centres).

The government has thus raised the orange alert that was declared on 23 May, and has deactivated the National Emergency Operations Centre (CENOE).

A final operation to transport those displaced Mozambicans who do wish to leave South Africa will take place on Wednesday. They will join the 36,404 Mozambcians who have already fled the South African ethnic cleansing.

On Tuesday morning, the bodies of four Mozambicans who died in the pogroms arrived in Maputo, bringing to ten the number of bodies that have been returned from South Africa.

During three weeks of violence, 62 foreign migrants were murdered. It is thought that half of them were Mozambicans, and to date only 17 of these bodies have been identified. South African funeral agencies are transporting the bodies to Mozambique, in an operation paid for by the South African government.