Afghan children walk at a displaced person camp in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, Dec. 21, 2018. More than one million Afghans have been displaced due to conflicts since 2001 as the worsening security situation and ongoing insurgency forced people to leave their homes for safer places. (Xinhua/Rahmat Alizadah)
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Thousands of Afghans have left their houses following critical draught, growing insecurity and Taliban-led insurgency in southern Afghan provinces, where officials warned a human tragedy if continued.
More than 30,000 families have been forced to leave their houses by rising insecurity and harsh draught in remote districts of southern Kandahar, Zabul, Uruzgan and Helmand provinces, arriving in Kandahar's provincial capital, Kandahar city, to seek urgent aids under harsh weather condition.
The displaced families also included villagers from eastern Ghazni, western Badghis and Farah provinces.
Abdul Khaliq, 38, a displaced man from Badghis, said he fled from draught and fighting between government security forces and Taliban and had no shelter to reside in Kandahar city.
"I become more miserable when came to Kandahar due to war and draught. I have no even a shelter to reside, nor primary life facilities," Khaliq told Xinhua on Wednesday while asking the government for immediate support.
Another displaced, Gul Babu, an aged woman, said she had nothing to eat or drink and was now living in an open desert.
Local officials said they had only registered about 5,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Kandahar and provided them with some urgent assistance in cooperation with international aid agencies while the rest IDPs did not receive any support so far.
"They need shelter and other primary facilities, under severe climate condition," Mohammad Rahim Rahimi, provincial director of repatriates and refuges department, told Xinhua.
This year, some 4,200 people have also recently returned to Kandahar, via Spin Boldak border town from Pakistan, where provincial authorities have started distribution of land among them in two separate townships of Daman and Panjwai districts, Rahimi said.
Efforts were underway to provide assistance to IDPs in Kandahar city before the winter, he added.
So far this year, more than 325,000 Afghans have been internally displaced by conflict, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Afghanistan reported on Wednesday.
The report came as fighting rages across the country and the worsening security situation and ongoing insurgency forced people to leave their homes to safer places.
However, the agency noted that overall the number of people displaced so far is 36 percent less than the same period last year.
A recent survey launched by the UN Migration Agency (IOM) said that Afghanistan ranked the world's second country in term of repatriation growth.
Addressing a meeting on Tuesday, marking the International Migration Day, government Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah said more than six million Afghan people have been forced to leave the country by the last four decades of war.
He said the government has put the issue of IDPs and migrates at its priority and good development has been made in this field, but not satisfactory.
"War still continues and hundreds of households are uncertain to either leave or remain in Afghanistan," regretted Abdullah who blamed the continuation of war as the main reason for displacement and migration.
He thanked the IOM for supporting Afghan refugees, as migration has turned into an international challenge.
Sarah Craggs, senior head of programmes and serving deputy at the IOM, also spoke at the meeting as saying the organization would continue to stay alongside the government and people of Afghanistan, and was making efforts to tackle migration challenges.
"We renew our call to ensure that migration and displacement remain our focus of attention, and that migration is safe, regular and dignified for all," she said.
More than one million Afghans have been displaced due to conflicts since 2001 as worsening security situation and the ongoing insurgency have forced people to leave their homes.
