Resumed fighting deters returns to Chechnya, says UNHCR.
14 January -- UN News Service The number of Chechens returning from Ingushetia has dropped sharply over the past few days, as fighting and shelling resumed around two locations previously regarded as quiet, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said today. The daily number had dropped to 300 on Thursday, down from some 1,500 a few days ago. Recent statements by Russian commanders that males between 10 and 60 would not be allowed in and out of Chechnya and would not be considered refugees had also contributed to the downturn in returnees, UNHCR added. The UN agency, voicing its concern, said it had asked the Russian Government for clarification of the statements. All those fleeing the war were in need of international protection regardless of their gender and age, it added. UNHCR this week sent a relief convoy to Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan which hosts some 7,000 people displaced from Chechnya by the current fighting, as well as 6,000 displaced during a Chechen rebel incursion into Dagestan last August. According to various estimates quoted by UNHCR, more than 180,000 displaced people remain in Ingushetia. 140,000 of them were accommodated with host families, some 25,000 are in camps and another 28,000 in makeshift settlements.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
