Insecurity displaces 2,000 Balkh families

MAZAR-I-SHARIF (PAN): Insecurity has displaced more than 2,000 families over the past two years in northern Balkh province, an official said on Sunday.

So far 5,000 displaced families had been registered, Director of Refugees Abdul Saboor Qadri told a ceremony for aid distribution to 4,000 affected households.

The families belonged to Chamtal and Char Bolak districts, he said, adding the displaced were in disparate need of assistance.

Qadri said the families were assisted several times during the past two years, but the aid had been insufficient. He called on relief agencies to provide the households with food and non-food items.

The aid has been provided by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), whose spokesman Fahim Hamdard said each family received six blankets, a tent, a kitchen set, a gas cylinder, two bottles of drinking water, six soap bars and a metal bucket.

He acknowledged the families lacked basic facilities, including food and shelter. The World Food Program (WFP) has also contributed to the assistance. Each family was given 150 kilograms of wheat, 18 kilograms of beans and more than 11 kilograms of ghee.

ma/mud

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