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BLANTYRE, March 27 (AFP) - The World Food Programme (WFP) on Wednesday announced an appeal for food aid for some 8,000 refugees mainly from other African countries sheltered at a camp in Malawi's central district of Dowa.

WFP said it would need 705,000 US dollars to meet the refugees' basic food requirements and improve their nutrition for the next 12 months.

The Malawi government and the United Nations High Commissioner for refugees (UNHCR) requested WFP to take over the responsibility of providing food aid to the refugees at the camp, some 100 kilometres (60 miles) north of the administrative capital Lilongwe.

The majority of refugees at the Dzaleka camp are from Angola, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Eritrea, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda.

WFP said the influx of refugeees to Malawi was "occurring at an increasing rate, reaching sometimes 100 refugees a week due to among other factors civil strife, political instabilities in some countires." - Nampa-AFP