A new UN report indicates that nearly half a million Afghans have been displaced in the past ten months due to the recent surge in violence.
The report illustrates that the majority of those displaced are from war-hit regions such as Kunduz, Uruzgan and Helmand provinces. In addition many are dealing with food shortages.
The United Nations Assistance Mission (UNAMA) has said that 56 percent of those displaced are children and teenagers, 23 percent are men and 22 percent women. The majority of those displaced belong to Kunduz, Uruzgan, Helmand and Faryab provinces, the report stated.
The conflict in Kunduz province has also largely contributed to this problem and many displaced residents from this northern province have sought refuge in Kabul city.
Concerns have also been raised as winter fast approaches.
“I don’t have a husband and sought refuge in Kabul with my five children. (We been here) for forty days. We do not have food to eat or a house to live in; we are looking for a place to live. Everyday life becomes harder for us. I have come to the department of refugees for twenty days to ask for some help, but I get nothing,” said one Kunduz resident, Benazir.
“I was in class 9 in Kunduz before the war, but I was deprived of an education after coming to Kabul. We have no food to eat or place to live,” said another displaced person from Kunduz, Baz Mohammad.
“We have lived in a rented house for forty days and life is quite hard for us,” another displaced resident, Kamila, said.
“We accompanied three families from Kunduz and came here to Kabul,” said another resident, Abdul Hai.
In the meantime, government has been criticized over its inability to address the problems of these refugees
“Internally displaced families do not have good living conditions; half of them have not been given aid; government’s financial resources are also not enough to address the problems of the displaced families, (especially) before winter,” sociologist Hadi Meeran said.
The Ministry of Refugees and Repatriations has confirmed that only half of the internally displaced families have been given humanitarian assistance.
“Since the start of the solar year (March) more than 450,000 people have been displaced in the country; the problem is that we do not have access to sufficient financial resources to meet the challenge,” said Hafiz Ahmad Miakhail, media advisor of the ministry of refugees and repatriations.
Statistics show that currently the number of internally displaced persons across the nation is estimated to be over 1.2 million in total.
In recent months there has been an influx of refugees returning from Pakistan. It is believed that as many as 500,000 refugees have so far returned.
This article originally appeared on www.tolonews.com, 09 November, 2016. Original link.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in the article are not necessarily supported by CRSS.