Badakhshan IDPs seek permanent shelters as winter approaches

FAIZABAD (Pajhwok): Hundreds of displaced persons in northeastern Badakhshan province have been scared of increasing cold weather and asked concerned authorities to pay attention to their miserable condition.

Abdul Hameed, the resident of Ogh Dara Jawkhan village in Yamgan district, told Pajhwok Afghan News initial food and non-food items had reached to them but they lost their houses to the floods completely.

He said he and his family members, including children, went through miserable conditions and with increasing cold their worries had increased.

He said over 88 residential houses had perished by flood in the Wani, Pandara and Ogh villages and currently some of these people lived in tents while some lived in their relatives houses.

He asked the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan to construct permanent residents or winter shelters for them.

Qari Abdul Sabour, a local influential from the Ogh village of Yamgan district, said he currently lived in his relatives’ house in the district centre and added the volume of losses was greater than what the local institutions had estimated.

He said he has two families but has no shelter and no financial ability to build house.

Mohammad Kamgar, deputy head of the Disaster Management Department, acknowledged the concerns of displaced people in Badakhshan and said over 800 families from Raghistan, Yawan, Karan Wa Manjan, Yamgan districts and from some parts of Faizabad City had been displaced due to natural disasters in the past seven months.

“Besides displaced persons, we ourselves are concerned that with increasing rainfall and gold weather we may witness a humanitarian catastrophe.”

He said the Natural Disaster Management Department arranged food items, tents and cash assistance for 722 victim families of land sliding with the support of charity organizations.

He added: “With the arrival of the winter season, the displaced people will be trapped under the snow for almost six months and their communication routes will be cut off.”

Mawlavi Mohammad Younis Jihadmal, head of the Refugees and Repatriation Department, said that displaced persons in Badakhshan had been distributed cash, food and non-food assistance.

He said: “In coordination with the International Organisation of Migration (IOM) efforts are underway get aid for 3,000 displaced persons, and 2,000 repatriated persons from Iran and Pakistan in 2023.”

Badakhshan province is one of the provinces of the country where weather gets severely cold during winter and most of the time the landscape remain snow packed.

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