KUNDUZ (Pajhwok): Some 2,000 more families in northern Kunduz province have been displaced due to fear of conflict, living in dire conditions.
The families have been displaced over the past week from Qara-i-Qachi, Kobayee, Kunum, Hazrat Sultan, Khwaja Ghaltan and other localities.
Mohammad Yusuf Ayubi, provincial council head, said the displaced families lived in relatives’ houses, rented places or in the open, waiting for stability to return to their areas.
He told Pajhwok Afghan News the affected households had to deal with many challenges, including lack of edibles. He urged the government to help them out of the situation.
Sahiba, a resident of Kobi village, said the Taliban had warned them to leave their homes so as not to be affected by the conflict. She had to move with six members of her family to a relative’s house without food and clothing.
Khuda-i-Dad, a resident of Kunum village, said: “All villages of the Kunduz capital have been evacuated and people have flocked to Kunduz City.”
He is a farmer from Kunum village but has to pay rent for the house he is living in in Kunduz City. “We’re spending the money we’ve got left. I really hope to return home soon. Otherwise I have no choice but to look for some manual job here.”
Abdul Salam Hashemi, refugees and repatriation department head, said a survey of the displaced was ongoing and after being identified, food and other aid would be distributed to them.
As a result of fighting this year in Kunduz, more than 18,000 families have been displaced to the provincial capital. Hashemi said a third of those families had received aid and returned home.
He said majority of the households that had returned were from Chardara, Aliabad, Qala-i-Zal and Imam Sahib and Gor Tepa districts.
The newly displaced families complain clashes occur on a daily basis in their villages and they are worried about their crops and houses.
But security officials say they are planning clearing operations soon in insecure localities. Dasht-i-Archi district and parts of Chardara have been under Taliban’s control for the past two months.
hg/mud