By NNN-IRIN,
Kabul : Over 9,500 people displaced from their homes by conflict in southern and central Afghanistan have received food and non-food assistance from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
“During the month of July only 1,372 households displaced due to the conflict received ICRC essential food and non-food assistance,” the Geneva-based organisation said in a statement on Tuesday.
The 170 metric tonnes of emergency food aid contained rice, beans, ghee, salt, sugar and tea, and the non-food aid package included tarpaulins, blankets, jerry cans, kitchen sets and soap.
The clashes forced 338 families out of their homes in Panjwaee District and 176 families out of their homes in Arghandab District of Kandahar Province in June and July. About 260 households were also displaced in Wardak Province, central Afghanistan, according to the ICRC.
Tens of thousands of civilians have been displaced mostly in southern areas due to insurgency-related violence over the past two years, aid agencies say.
The ICRC said it had assisted over 5,000 battle-displaced families (about 35,000 individuals) in Kandahar, Uruzgan and Helmand provinces since January 2008. The UN and humanitarian aid organisations have also responded to conflict-related displacements with food and non-food aid.
Over 1,000 civilians have been killed since January, many non-governmental organisations reported in August. The number of wounded has also been high.
The ICRC said it was working to ensure that “every war-wounded” person – combatant or civilian – had access to medical assistance.
In the past eight months over 170,000 people affected by the conflict have received medical care at hospitals and health clinics supported by the ICRC. The ICRC has preformed 11,579 medical operations in the same period, according to a factsheet released by the Red Cross.
In a bid to provide pre-hospital medical assistance to war-wounded persons, the ICRC has provided 525 emergency consignments of first aid kits in remote areas where health facilities are unavailable.
The ICRC has also pre-positioned “a war-wounded kit” usable by up to 50 persons at the Ministry of Public Health in Kabul “for emergency events, such as the Indian Embassy incident [when a bomb killed some 50 people in July],” it said.