An upsurge in fighting in the past three months has displaced roughly 26,000 Afghans, the UN says in a new report.
Over a year, between March 2016 and March 2017, half a million Afghans were forced to leave their homes by war and increasing insecurity. Provinces like Kunduz, Uruzgan, Helmand, Baghlan, Nangarhar and Jowzjan have seen the most displacement.
A majority of the internally displaced people (IDPs) has had to fend for themselves since there is just not enough funds even for emergency relief supplies.
Mawlawi Alamgul who fled Kunduz is living in terrible poverty in Khuja Jam area, adjoining Campany in Kabul. He has no access even to water. He says that in Kunduz he had built a house and bought a car that he ran as a taxi. But he has lost everything in the war in Kunduz. “When Kunduz fell (to the Taleban last year) the situation got very bad and we had to leave home. My car was set on fire. My family got away with only our lives,” he says.
Alamgul says that three months after the recapture of Kunduz he went back to his house to find everything had been stolen including the bricks and girders used in the construction of the building. “I sat in my destroyed house, and wept tears of despair. I returned empty handed to Kabul. No one has helped me. No one has given me even one Afghani,” he says.
Alamgul says his sons aged between 10 and 15 years who used to go to school in Kunduz now go with him every morning to the Campany chawk (crossing) in the hope of finding daily work. “Some time we find work, and some time we return home. Life is tough,” he adds.
Some 200 families fled Jowzjan to Shaberghan and other cities. Forced to live in makeshift shelters during the bitter winter months, some 20 children of IDP families are reported to have died.
Halima Sadaf, provincial council member who told the media about the deaths adds, “The government has failed to assist the refugees.”
Bleak present
Helmand too there has been massive dislocation because of lack of security. Naqibullah Zmaerial, a spokesperson for the internally displaced in Helmand told the media that some 3,000 families have moved to Kandahar province. Thousands of IDPs from districts like Nad e Ali, Garamser, Chah Enjeer, Babaji, Marja and Nawa have fled to the provincial capital, Lashkargah city, in Helmand.
Many IDP families are living on the side of roads or in the desert, often even without a makeshift roof over their heads or food. “We urge the government and international community to help these innocent people,” says a civil society activist.
Helmand Governor Hayatullah Hayat’s press office says 80 families were given 80 bags of flour, 5 bags of peas and 40 blankets. Killid could not independently verify the claim.
IDPs in Jalalabad, the provincial capital of Nangarhar, are from Achin, Koot, Shinwar and Haska Mena districts. Roughly 1,050 families have fled the districts. “We have left our houses open, and carried away with us neither blankets nor a second set of clothes. We are living here in tents and facing many problems,” says a family elder who did not want to be identified.
Ataullah Khogiani, spokesperson for the Nangarhar governor told the media that the local government would soon supply all the IDPs with essential supplies. “We are helping refugee families according to our ability,” he says. “The provincial administration cannot solve all problems of refugees. We appeal to international community to help.”
