LUSAKA, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- The Italian government has provided 250,000 Euros (310,000 U.S. dollars) to help Zambia tackle the influx of refugees, a senior Zambian government official said on Thursday.

Ministry of Home Affairs Permanent Secretary Chileshe Mulenga said the donation was in response to a call made by President Edgar Lungu to the international community for assistance to refuges following an influx of refugees from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

He said in a statement that the donation from Italy has come at a time when the government was running low on essential supplies and relocating the DRC refugees from a transit center to a newly-established permanent refugee settlement in Nchelenge district in Luapula Province.

The donation will go towards providing basic needs of refugees such as food, clean water, sanitation, tents, blankets and mosquito nets, he added.

Zambia, he said, still needed support from cooperating partners to take care of the refugees as the country has continued to receive the refuges especially from the DRC.

According to him, the number of DRC refugees at Kenani Transit Center had risen to 14,529 as of January 30 and that the number was expected to rise to over 20,000 by April this year.