By Mirabed Joyenda
Photo: UNAMA
Reiterating calls for humanitarian assistance, the Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation (MoRR) said on Sunday that out of 550,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) registered in the country, only 72,000 of them have been resettled in their regions.
This comes amid a harsh winter, with temperatures expected to continue to drop.
As the weather deteriorates, the plight of IDPs worsens, said the ministry. Thousands of IDPs are currently housed in flimsy tents in Kabul and other regions after being forced to flee to safety due to ongoing violence.
Mohammad Noor is IDPs who fled Kunduz three months ago and along with his wife and eight children are living in desperate conditions.
“We are here and praying to God, no one is there to help us, we lost everything we had and our children are suffering from a food shortage,” he said.
“We go out and collect plastic and paper and burn them to keep ourselves warm,” said Noor’s daughter Kalima.
“If government does not help IDPs, their tents will fill up with water and they will face more problems,” said another IDP Anzor Safai, referring to the heavy snowfalls recorded in Kabul in the past two days.
Based on MoRR statistics, only 72,000 of the IDPs from the total of 550,000 have been resettled.
“We have around 7,000 IDPs only in Kabul and the majority of them were provided with cash, clothes and food,” said MoRR spokesman Islamuddin Juraat.
The majority of IDPs come from a number of war-hit regions such as Kunduz, Helmand, Nangarhar, Farah, Uruzgan, Faryab, Ghazni, Sar-e-Pul, Paktia, Baghlan and Badghis provinces.
According to MoRR, the overall number of IDPs in the country is estimated to be around 1.3 million.