Nearly 60,000 refugees in Malawi’s Dzaleka camp face life-threatening hunger as United Nations food aid funding nears exhaustion by June.
The overcrowded camp, located 40 kilometres north of Lilongwe, hosts more than 57,000 refugees and asylum seekers.
Most residents fled conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, and Burundi, seeking safety but finding deepening deprivation.
Refugees depend entirely on cash-based food assistance, as Malawi’s laws restrict employment and limit any means of self-reliance.
The World Food Programme said current funding will only sustain operations until June, leaving the camp’s future uncertain.
“This is really life-threatening,” said WFP Malawi country director Hyoung-Joon Lim, describing aid as a critical lifeline.
The Rome-based agency has already reduced rations, meeting just 60 percent of basic food needs inside the camp.
WFP last year warned of an unprecedented crisis after the United States cut foreign aid and other donors reduced contributions.
Dzaleka’s population has surged since March 2023, when Malawi enforced a strict policy confining all refugees to the camp.
Police and military operations relocated thousands, shuttering businesses and swelling the camp to six times its intended capacity.
Lim said hunger and overcrowding have fuelled instability, with children leaving school and girls resorting to transactional sex.
Allowing refugees to work and live outside the camp would restore dignity and sustainability, he said, urging policy reform.