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Over 900,000 people have been displaced by fighting between armed militants and government forces in Swat Valley since the beginning of the month, the United Nations said on Friday. Also, the UN said its humanitarian staff were receiving threats from militants in the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), causing concern for their safety and hindering the aid operation.
Antonio Guterres, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), who recently visited Pakistan and met with the displaced said he was surprised at the speed with which the displacement was unfolding. His spokesman in Geneva, William Spindler, said the agency had already registered 907,000 people and that the "figure was going up by the hour."
Spindler said there was "massive displacement" in the area and the UN would likely need "hundreds of millions of dollars" for the relief efforts. The newly registered displaced people come on top of 550,000 others who fled fighting last year and have since not returned home.
UN agencies warned about the possible outbreak of illnesses, noting that already the temperature in the refugee camps was 43 degrees during the day and expected to go higher as summer kicked in. Water and sanitation systems were said to be hardly functioning. The UN was not given advanced warning by the Pakistani government about any of its offensives, officials said.
Meanwhile, the UN is concerned for the safety of aid workers, particularly after one if its top officials in Pakistan got nabbed by militants in another region earlier this year and was held for weeks. "Threats have been issued by armed militias, threatening humanitarian agencies," said Martin Mogwanja, the UN's acting humanitarian co-ordinator in Pakistan.
He also said refugees were being shot at as the fled, most likely by the militants. When a curfew was recently lifted, tens of thousands fled the conflict zone, Mogwanja added, noting that the influx of displaced people would likely continue. Currently, displaced people are being forced to flee at short notice, taking little goods with them, sometimes walking long distances to reach safety. "We are very concerned that fighting does continue in areas" of the NWFP, he told reporters by teleconference from Pakistan.
Only about 10 per cent of the displaced are living in camps, with the rest staying with relatives and friends. The UN has voiced concern that those outside the camps as well as their hosts will likely need increased assistance in the weeks ahead. The World Food Programme said it was aiding some 780,000 people. The UN has called on displaced to file with UNHCR as it would be "easier to assist those who register." Already aid agencies say offering assistance is a challenge because the displaced are dispersed and not staying in the official camps.

Copyright Deutsche Presse-Agentur, 2009

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