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Sharp rise in displaced families fleeing conflict: UN report
At least 330,000 people have been displaced in the last seven months due to an increase in conflict across Afghanistan, the UN reported Saturday.
“So far in 2021, 330,000 people have been displaced by conflict across Afghanistan. Another five million people remain displaced since 2012,” the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) reported.
According to the report, the fighting has also been reported in new areas in the northeast province of Kunar, displacing 20,000 people within the province, and Nangahar Province.
“Nine UN and partner organizations’ teams are assessing needs in Kandahar. Last week, about 1,800 internally displaced people received food, relief items, and water and sanitation hygiene support as well as physiotherapy and cash assistance. In Kunar, UN and partner organizations are assessing needs and responding.
“Urgent needs include food, water, shelter, and health services,” the report said.
Maryam [not her real name] and her family are among an estimated 330,000 Afghans who have been newly displaced inside the country since the start of this year by an upsurge in violence.
“There was war. Bombs were being dropped. My father was killed there, and a lot of my relatives were killed as well and we had to flee. I was responsible for my children and I didn’t want them to be killed. So, I came here with my elderly mother,” Maryam said.
“Our situation is very difficult. As you can see, we are all displaced. Our children need food. They would ask for anything, they are children, they don’t know whether we have it or not.”
“We want a normal life just like everyone else. I want my children to become something in Afghanistan, to become doctors, engineers, or something. That is my hope,” she stated.
As conflict intensifies in northern Afghanistan and other parts of the country, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, warned of an imminent humanitarian crisis, saying failure to reach a peace agreement will see further displacement.
Fahim Hamdard, Senior Field Assistant, UN Refugee Agency, stated: “Over the last year, families have been dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, a devastating drought and now increased violence in the north and northeast regions is driving more people from their homes every day.”
Amid an overall increase in civilian casualties, the proportion of women and children affected by violence has risen sharply since January, adding to the toll Afghanistan’s decades-long conflict has taken on people like Maryam and her family.
UNHCR and its partners are assisting newly displaced Afghans with emergency shelter, food, health care, water, and sanitation support, and cash assistance, but a shortage of funding means humanitarian resources are falling dramatically short.
After reports of corruption and the move by the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) to take control of Afghanistan’s embassy in New Delhi, the Indian government has said the issue is an internal matter which does not involve them.
Representatives of Afghan refugees living in India have accused officials at the Afghanistan embassy in Delhi, including the ambassador, of corruption. The embassy denies the allegations.
Indian media have also reported that the embassy resisted IEA’s move to formally take control of the embassy.
Arindam Bagchi, India’s foreign ministry spokesman, said in a press conference that the issue is an internal matter of the embassy.
“From our perspective, this is an internal matter of the Afghan Embassy, and we hope that they would resolve it internally,” Bagchi said.
The United Arab Emirates’ Permanent Representative to the UN Lana Nusseibeh said the UN Security Council will hold a meeting on Afghanistan later this month.
Nusseibeh, who is currently President of the Security Council, said: “We will hold a comprehensive meeting on Afghanistan’s situation on June 21.
“Our focus will be concentrated on Afghanistan’s situation, women’s rights in particular, over which all the members of the Security Council have agreed,” she added.
On Thursday, Nusseibeh told media in New York that the UN Security Council will continue working on the issues of Afghanistan, especially on women’s rights.
According to the UAE ambassador, Fraidoon Oglu, the UN Special Coordinator for Afghanistan Affairs will provide a comprehensive report about the situation in the country to the Security Council in November.
This comes after Fox News reported on Friday that several US Senators have proposed a bill to tighten sanctions against IEA officials in response to human rights violations in Afghanistan.
Pakistan’s Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah has once again claimed that Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) is launching attacks against the country using Afghanistan’s soil.
“The position of the Afghan government is that they say we do not support Tehreek-e-Taliban against the government of Pakistan, but we have complaints about them, the people of this group enter Pakistan from Afghanistan; almost two months ago, they (Islamic Emirate) told us that we are moving them further away from the border so that they do not have access to attack Pakistan,” said Rana Sanaullah in an interview.
The Islamic Emirate meanwhile has consistently emphasized that no group will be allowed to use Afghan soil against other countries.
“Afghan soil is not used against anyone and we do not allow Afghan soil to be used against Pakistan or any other country,” said Zabihullah Mujahid, IEA’s spokesman.
“The policy of the Islamic Emirate has been analyzed in the light of Afghanistan’s issues and the country’s national interests, which is indeed a neutral and balanced policy adopted within the framework of international interests and international security,” said Hatef Mokhtar, a political analyst.
This comes after a high-ranking delegation of IEA officials, led by Amir Khan Muttaqi, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, visited Pakistan for talks. At a meeting with Pakistani officials in Islamabad, they emphasized the need for the expansion of diplomatic relations and bilateral cooperation.
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