The UN Refugee Agency has delivered a batch of tents for displaced people in Afghanistan in what is the first of 12 airlifts planned to bring over 15,000 tents, the agency's senior regional spokesman said Tuesday.
GENEVA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 27th November, 2018) The UN Refugee Agency has delivered a batch of tents for displaced people in Afghanistan in what is the first of 12 airlifts planned to bring over 15,000 tents, the agency's senior regional spokesman said Tuesday.
"The UN Refugee Agency, this past Saturday began the first in a series of airlifts to western Afghanistan bringing thousands of tents for people displaced by a mix of conflict and an ongoing severe drought," Babar Baloch told reporters.
A dry spell in the country has pushed over 3.6 million to the brink of starvation and displaced 250,000 people from rural areas, the deputy special envoy for the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, Toby Lanzer, said Monday.
The UN aid agency's spokesman said the tent delivery would help almost half of those displaced in the country's west.
"UNHCR's airlift will comprise 12 flights in total, bringing 15,100 family size tents - with the aim of easing the plight of almost half the displaced population," Baloch said.
A severe drought, described as the worst in decades, has hit Afghanistan after a dry winter, devastating crops and forcing the predominantly rural Afghan population to escape to makeshift camps and cities to avoid famine. The crisis is exacerbated by four years of record civilian casualties caused by continued fighting.
