ISLAMABAD – The United Nations refugee agency warned on late Friday that military operations against the insurgents in Pakistan’s Mohmand agency could displace up to 90,000 people by the end of February if the fighting intensifies. According to the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which aims at safeguarding the rights and well-being of refugees worldwide, fighting has already displaced some 25,000 people over the past week.
UNHCR has established two new camps, mainly to accommodate people who have been fleeing the Sagi and Dawezai areas of Mohmand agency since military operations intensified on January 27. The agency said that many of those arriving at the camps had little more than the clothes on their backs, and winter clothes and shelter were urgently required.
The two camps were the first to be established by UNHCR for conflict-displaced Pakistanis within the tribal areas of the north-west since military operations against insurgents began in 2008. UNHCR has also deployed engineers, field and protection staff to Ghalanai, the administrative capital of Mohmand agency, and helped authorities set up camps at Nahqi and Danish Kol to the north and north-east of Ghalanai.
“While UNHCR has set up these camps within Mohmand agency and we are also advocating that displaced people be allowed to move further to stay with relatives and friends in Peshawar or other settled areas,” UNHCR’s spokesperson, Adrian Edwards said at a press briefing in Geneva, according to a press statement issued at UN headquarters in New York.
