Five million Afghans displaced due to war in past two years

State Ministry for Natural Disaster Management said Thursday that at least five million Afghans have been displaced due to conflict in the country in the past two years.

According to the ministry, amid escalating violence by the Taliban in the past two months alone, 32,384 families have been displaced in 25 provinces, of which 20,000 have been assisted so far.

The State Minister for Disaster Management Ghulam Bahauddin Jilani said emergency operations have been rolled under difficult conditions by the Afghan government.

According to the minister, the escalation of violence by the Taliban has forced people to seek refuge in safer areas.

“We launched the emergency operation with all our might in 25 provinces and yesterday we addressed the IDPs in 17 provinces of the country,” Jilani said.

The ministry says 62,480 families have been displaced in the last six months, of which more than 30,000 have been displaced in the past two months.

The ministry says it needs 500 million Afghanis to care for these families.

“We need the humanitarian assistance of international organizations and donor countries to better address the displaced people,” Jilani added.

The current situation, the presence of a large number of IDPs, has put a lot of pressure on how government services are provided, while increasing competition for access to job opportunities in relatively safe cities, he said.

“It’s been a month since we were displaced, we lost everything,” said Nasrin, an IDP from Herat province.

“There was a war in our village, the planes bombed, and the Taliban came, we took some things and left some others and ran away,” said Bibi Mehri, another IDP from Balkh.

In addition, another challenge facing that the Ministry of Disaster Management is the displacement caused by drought.