Heavy fighting in Afghanistan forces thousands to flee their homes: UNHCR
10 October -- The United Nations refugee agency reported today that heavy fighting between the Taliban and the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan has uprooted some 150,000 people in the past few weeks.
According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), 15,000 Afghans -- mostly women and children fleeing fighting in the north-east -- have arrived in Pakistan, which already hosts 1.2 million Afghan refugees. "In the past week, they have been arriving at the rate of 50 families - 250 people - per day," UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond told reporters at the agency's headquarters in Geneva.
So far, no Afghan refugees have fled into Tajikistan, but fighting in the Northern Alliance stronghold of Badakshan has raised fears of displacement across the Afghan-Tajik border, Mr. Redmond said. In preparation for a possible wave of arrivals, UNHCR has pre-positioned 15,000 blankets and 1,000 units of plastic sheeting, along with other relief supplies, in Tajikistan.
Meanwhile, inside Afghanistan, the UN and partner aid agencies are providing food and other supplies to civilians displaced by the conflict. Some 24,000 people are receiving food assistance. Tents, blankets and plastic sheeting have also been distributed. "But some families are running out of food, and prices of their livestock are declining," Mr. Redmond said. He warned that weather conditions were deteriorating and in some locations, fighting has impeded access to the displaced.
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