IDPs in Khost seek humanitarian aid

KHOST CITY (Pajhwok): Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) in southeastern Khost province have asked the government for humanitarian support and the provision of other necessary facilities of life.

Government officials, however, pledged to address the problems of IDP families.

These IDP families, numbering around 400, who moved from Khost and different provinces of the country, currently reside in the Shamal Farara area of ​​Khost City.

They said that poverty and unemployment had made their lives miserable and in addition, they do not have access to clean drinking water.

Mohammad Sharif Zazai, a member of an IDP family, has requested humanitarian support and said they should be given priority.

“Aid-providing NGOs visit us and not down our names, nobody sees the aid, we don’t know that aid items are sold in the desert or what is the issue, these people suffered, they lift their homes, they are homeless, they have orphans and martyrs.”

The members of these internally displaced families say that during the rains in the winter, water stagnates in their houses and they do not have access to clean drinking water.

Musa Gul, another IDP family member, said: “Our water has been contaminated, it has worms in most places, and the taste is very bad.”

Another IDP Mustafa said there was no school in their area and due to poverty, they were unable to enroll their children in private schools.

He said: “All these children do not go to school, they are also uneducated. We want a government school to be built here. A private school requires a monthly fee of 500 to 600 Afghanis, which we do not have.”

Rozi Gul, another displaced person, said: “These are houses made of blocks and we put simple wood on them, during the winter, the water enters our rooms and could not be removed.”

Abdul Mutalib Haqqani, spokesperson for the Ministry of Refugees and Repatriations (MoRR), said firstly, all IDPs would be sent to their areas of origin.

He said IDP families who could not return to their homes would be provided education and other facilities in cooperation with aid providing organisations.

Haqqani said: “We are in contact with partner institutions, we have meetings from time to time, this past Friday, we also signed a memorandum of understanding with the Ministry of Education to provide educational and other basic facilities for them in these camps that they need it.”

According to the MoRR currently three million families are displaced nationwide. Most of IDP families lived in the capital Kabul.

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