People of Waziristan leave home again © 2009 Tariq Saeed/IRIN
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Thousands of people displaced by the two-week old conflict in South Waziristan, in Pakistan’s northwest, are arriving in the Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP) districts of Tank and Dera Ismail Khan, sometimes fleeing the fighting by difficult, dangerous and expensive routes.
Their escape from the middle of a war zone, access to and from which is tightly controlled by the Pakistan military, is recounted in an article by Irin News. A local newpaper, Dawn, reports 20 October on a family, 12 of whose members were killed by a bomb while fleeing.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees says about 125,000 people have fled since hostilities began, joining the 81,000 who had already left since August. Most find accommodation with friends and family, following Pashtun tribal customs of hospitality. The UN children’s agency, Unicef, says most of the displaced are women and children.
Goodwill ambassador Jolie with a resident of Chikook, Baghdad © UNHCR
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – UNHCR’s goodwill ambassador, Angelina Jolie, paid a visit to some of the estimated 1.6 million internally displaced people (IDPs) in Iraq Thursday 23 July, her third to the country.
Jolie spoke to some families in the Chikook camp northwest of Bagdhad which houses 20,000 people, mostly women and children, displaced by sectarian violence that wracked the country beginning in 2006.
At least eight people died 17 June when a mortar landed on a building in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu and up to a dozen more deaths were reported elsewhere in the city in the latest wave of fighting. Government forces are battling some 500 fighters from the hard-line Islamist Shabaab group in the city. Mogadishu’s police chief was also killed in an offensive on rebel positions. Various rebel factions control most of the south of the country along the border with Kenya. Aid agencies have said that Somalia’s internally displaced population is the largest in the world and that the dire security situation makes it very difficult to provide help. BBC, Reuters, Oxfam
Background: UNHCR
The Washington Post reports that some local charities aiding internally displaced people (IDPs) in northwest Pakistan may be affiliated with banned militant groups or groups close to them, such as the Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation. They assist with meals and medical services. The Post quotes a Falah-e-Insaniat official as saying they might provide schooling if the fighting lasts, since many IDPs don’t know when they may be able to return to their homes.
Almost 1.8 million people have been forced from their homes since the beginning of May 2009, joining the more than 550,000 who had fled since August 2008. The exodus has overwhelmed government and international agencies’ efforts to assist them. Many displaced people languish in camps with rudimentary services in day-time temperatures in the low 40s°C.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The total number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Pakistan now surpasses two million people since August 2008, according to Geneva-based UNHCR (UN High Commissioner for Refugees). The figures correspond to those being issued by Pakistan’s government.
The total number of IDPs fleeing the conflict in in northwest Pakistan in the Swat, Buner and Lower Dir districts, and registered by UNHCR since the beginning of the month is close to 1.5 million.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) has registered more than 45,000 new internally displaced persons (IDPs) over the past four days at 12 new registration points in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province, the organization announced 7 May. It is setting up new camps in Mardan and Swabi districts, south of the conflict area in the Swat valley, to house people fleeing a surge in the fighting between govenment forces and Taliban militants. Up to 500,000 civilians may be affected by the conflict.
