KABUL (SW) – Figures compiled by Salam Watandar indicate raging conflict across the country has displaced over 67,000 people in 12 provinces.
Based on these statistics, since the beginning of the current solar year some 12,000 families in Kunduz, 25,000 families in Balkh, over 6,000 families in Bamyan, 6,000 families in Badakhshan, 3,000 families each in Jawzjan and Herat, and over 2,000 families in Faryab, around 2,000 families in Ghor and Logar, and over 500 families have been displaced in Badghis and Nimroz provinces.
Herat, meanwhile, has the highest number of internally displaced people (IDPs) as it also hosted scores of affected families from Badghis, Ghor, Faryab, Farah and other insecure province owing to the war and drought. The displaced families complain about the lack of assistance from aid agencies and the government, claiming that they feed their children once a day, and sometimes only dry bread.
Wali Jan and Mohammad Uddin, two IDPs from Badghis province, said they had been relocated to Herat from their home province due to fighting between security forces and the Taliban. Some of these IDPs claim that they give their children sleeping pills because they do cannot feed them.
One of the displaced is Hamidullah, who has ten children, said he gives his children sleeping pills every day so that they don’t ask for food to eat.
Kunduz is among other war-torn provinces of Afghanistan where officials say at least 12,000 families have been relocated to the provincial capital this year from Imam Sahib, Khanabad, Chahar Dara and restive Aqtash districts.
The IDPs in the province say they have been living in rented houses for months in this cold weather and so far the government has not provided any assistance.
Elsewhere, some families who have migrated from insecure districts of Jawzjan, Sar-e-Pul and Faryab provinces to the center of Jawzjan said that they are living in dire conditions.
According to them, most of the aid for displaced families is taken away by residents of the city and the displaced families are unaware of the distribution of aid.
Displaced people in Badakhshan, Bamyan, Faryab, Balkh, Takhar, Logar, Ghor, Badghis and Nimroz provinces echoed these concerns. They complained about the poor living conditions with the onset of winter, saying they have been displaced by fighting between the government and the Taliban, but the government has not helped him in any way.
Meanwhile, officials from the department of refugees and repatriation in these provinces told Salam Watandar that some families have received food and non-food items.
Javed Nadeem, Herat’s director of refugee and returnee affairs, said most of the funds have been spent on rehabilitating victims of the coronavirus pandemic.
Abdul Malik Rustami, Jawzjan’s director of refugee and repatriation affairs, said more than 2,008 families had been displaced from districts in Faryab, Sar-e-Pul and Jawzjan provinces this year with the help of aid agencies.
Local officials in Ghor and Nimroz provinces also say some displaced families have received cash and food aid.
However, officials from the refugee and returnee affairs departments in Kunduz, Bamyan, Logar, Balkh, Badakhshan and Faryab provinces said the IDPs are living in dire straits. They called on aid agencies to help those in need.
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