Malawi’s Second Vice President Enoch Chihana has announced that 367 families settled in the disputed Kasasile area of Nkhata Bay will be relocated to Maji Estate in Mpherembe, Mzimba, where government has secured 600 hectares of land for them.
Chihana said the families will be enrolled in the Social Cash Transfer Programme and provided with food, fertilizer and safe water to help them settle and sustain their livelihoods.
Chihana, Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development Chimwemwe Chipungu and other senior government officials visited Kasasile on Wednesday, where they broke the news to the displaced villagers.
”Plot allocation will take place from 5 to 10 October, and the relocation exercise will run from 27 to 30 October. We will proceed in that manner,” said Chipungu.
However, the chairperson of the affected residents’ group, Lucky Botha, said the government’s decision came as a surprise.
”All these plans are new. We never discussed this with the government, and we think we should have been consulted on this arrangement,” claims Botha.
He added that residents still have unresolved grievances stemming from an incident in 2024, and argued that these should be addressed before any resettlement begins.
”In 2024, the military demolished our houses and destroyed other property, including crop fields. We have not been compensated to date. These issues should be dealt with first, before the resettlement,” he said.
For years, residents of Kasasile have complained about the conduct of the Malawi Defence Force (MDF), which claims ownership of the land as its firing range, saying it is not meant for human settlement.
Religious groups, civil rights organisations and the settlers themselves have made efforts to pressure government to stop the military from evicting them.
Nearly all the settlers are farmers who moved into the area, which falls under Senior Chief Mwana, because of its fertile soil.
