Things falling apart: Malawians start hitting back at Tanzanians

Reports from Mzuzu indicate that Malawians residing there have taken up the law in their hands by targeting Tanzanians living there. This follows the arrival of 300 Malawians who have fled Tanzania claiming harassment from Tanzanian communities and security officials.

In retaliation, some Malawians living in the Northern region city of Mzuzu have gone on a hunt for revenge, promising to meet the Tanzanian fire with their own fire.

Unconfirmed reports claim that threats have been issued to Tanzanians living in Mzuzu that they should be out of the city and back home by the end of business today or put their lives on risk.

Tanzanians have their various business enterprises in the city of Mzuzu such that they have a market there known as the Taifa market which has been closed in the meantime with the Tanzanians living in fear of their lives, property and businesses.

Relationships between Malawi and Tanzania went under when claims started surfacing that Lake Malawi was a potential oil deposit. From that instance, Tanzania laid a claim on a half part of the Lake which has always been known to belong to Malawi.

The situation has been worsened by what the Tanzanian authorities called a routine clean up exercise that saw some Malawians being chased out of Tanzania.