Malawi police find more bodies near mass grave that contained 25 Ethiopians from Daru, the BBC reported.
Police had been searching for a mass grave of refugees from Daru that was hidden underground in what is now Zambia’s eastern border. The discovery of the bodies was found the following day.
The BBC described the gravesite as ‘a graveyard where the dead slept for six weeks before their bodies were found in a swampy, mosquito-infested area of Zimbabwe’, adding that the people buried there had been transferred into camps in Mozambique.
The refugees from Daru had been living in Zimbabwe for a number of years to the west of Zambia, where they had been settled by a UIC-backed government that had been installed in 2017 in the aftermath of violent political protests.
Most Ethiopians have moved on to other countries since then, including to Saudi Arabia.
It is estimated that more than 10,000 Ethiopians fled for their lives to neighbouring Zambia and Zimbabwe, while some were resettled in Daru, but the population swelled to over 11,000 before the UIC began its resettlement in late 2017.
The UIC had promised to resettle all those families and then had set up the Daru Foundation, which is said to be running it on their behalf.
Despite the overwhelming presence of UIC-backed government and UIC-backed people who have been taking control, human rights groups have been pressing for an independent investigation with the UIC to determine what went wrong and to hold them accountable.
UIC officials have said an investigation was to be conducted by a “commission appointed by President Museveni”.
At the time of writing, UIC President Museveni has declined to appoint a commission, but has also refused to comment on the issue.
The UIC and the government have refused to allow humanitarian agencies to conduct a full investigation in Daru, citing the need to protect the safety of the population.
The Government of Rwanda has said that Daru must be returned immediately.
The refugee population in Daru was estimated to be over 20,000 as of 2018, but UIC is now said to be estimating that over 20,000 people were living in the area before the UIC took control.
UIC has insisted that it is able
