PYCA Launches Appeal to help Pakistani Flood Victims

Pakistan Youth and Community Association (PYCA) is launching an appeal to help the millions of people hit by Pakistan’s devastating floods.

The country’s worst ever flooding has affected almost 14 million people. The disaster has resulted in a mass movement of people leaving 500,000 homeless
and in desperate need of food, clean water, health care and shelter. The official figure of people killed in floods is 1600.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said the disaster had eclipsed the scale of the devastating 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the 2005 earthquake in Pakistan and January’s earthquake in Haiti put together.

“Pakistan is suffering the Worst Natural Disaster in its living memory; millions of people need our support to survive. PYCA has launched this campaign to help people who are in need of direct humanitarian assistance. I appeal for people and charities to act quickly and donate generously to help those affected at this difficult time, 100% of proceeds will go to the victims,” Mustafa Malik, Chief Executive of the Pakistan Youth and Community Association said.

PYCA is receiving the donations at their base at Pakistan Centre, 58 Earl Howe Street, Leicester LE2 0DF. Donations can be deposited directly in the following bank account,

Bank: Barclays Account Name: PYCA Relief Fund
Account No. 90179132 Bank Sort Code: 20-49-11

For further details, please contact Pakistan Centre on 0116 254 8012 or send an e-mail to [email protected]

Pakistan Shia IDPs fearful of being Targeted

IRIN – Shias displaced from Orakzai Agency near the Pakistan-Afghan border and now living with hosts in Hangu and Kohat districts, North West Frontier Province (NWFP), say they feel unprotected and vulnerable living alongside other internally displaced persons (IDPs) who are predominantly Sunni.

“We are terrified. The fact is that most of the IDPs here belong to the majority Sunni tribes. Generally we Shias try to keep a low profile by staying indoors with close relatives so we cannot be identified,” said Miran Shah Khan, a 30-year-old IDP from Orakzai tribal area. He said he had instructed his three children to stay “inside all the time”.

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Pakistan Braces for possible IDPs Influx

IRIN – Aid agencies are preparing for an influx of a possible further 150,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in northwestern Pakistan in 2010, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and other agencies.

Manuel Bessler, head of OCHA in Pakistan, told IRIN: “The moment we have the ‘Green Light’ from the government we will launch the Pakistan Humanitarian Response Plan for 2010, which will help us to coordinate our humanitarian efforts and raise the necessary funds to finance our activities.”

He added: “The humanitarian community operating in Pakistan is well prepared to address the needs of the displaced and other vulnerable people.”

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Pakistan Militants Targeting Schools in Northwest

IRIN – Attacks by militants on schools across northwestern Pakistan are continuing despite army operations in the area which began in May 2009 in Swat District.

Since late 2009, at least 10 schools have been targeted by Taliban militants in various parts of North West Frontier Province (NWFP), according to media reports.

Four children were killed in a September 2009 attack in Orakzai Agency allegedly in a bid to dissuade parents from sending children to school.

In the most recent attack on 18 January 2010 militants blew up a boys’ primary school in the village of Ashraf Kalay in Khyber Agency, also near the Afghan border.

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Widowed Pakistani IDPs Struggle to Cope

IRIN – Like most women from the rural areas of Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province (NWFP), Razila Bibi, 70, had rarely left her home village near the town of Kabal in conflict-hit Swat Valley before she was displaced in June 2009.

“Since I was married when I was 16 years, I only cared for the livestock and did household tasks. I knew very little about the outside world. I am learning now, at this age,” she told IRIN in Peshawar, NWFP’s provincial capital, where she and her family have been staying with a relative.

Razila is now the head of a household that includes her daughter-in-law, her four grandchildren and her own daughter, aged 30. Her son, who remained in Swat during the months of fighting as army soldiers moved into the area in May 2009, died in July. The circumstances of his death are unknown and the family has no male member to support them.

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An ‘impending humanitarian disaster’

Source:SAJAforum

That’s what Audil Rashid and Mian Nazish Adnan sound the alarm about in the July 4, 2009 issue of the British medical journal The Lancet, following their recent visits to camps set up to house internally displaced persons (IDPs) fleeing the conflict zone in Pakistan’s North-West Frontier Province. While Americans celebrate the Independence Day weekend with barbeques and fireworks, Rashid and Adnan paint a grim picture of the crisis in Pakistan:

From the very beginning it was evident that the government had underestimated the human cost of the military operation. As several camps were hastily set up to cater to the massive influx of IDPs, reports about the lack of even basic amenities in these camps began to emerge. Excessive heat (daytime temperatures soaring to 40°C and above), no electricity, food and water shortages, poor sanitation, and lack of proper health care are some of the immediate problems being faced by IDPs….

Lack of proper toilets and sanitation, unsafe drinking water, infrequent bathing, high air temperatures, inadequate disposal of solid waste, and the complete absence of a proper drainage system at the refugee camps are the main causes of worry for relief health workers. “This is the making of a disaster. These camps have been established on open tracts of land used for agricultural purposes. There are snakes, rats, and scorpions here. At night, when it is pitch dark because of no electricity, people sleep on the ground and are vulnerable to snakebites”, said M Idrees Mirza, a doctor who runs a private clinic in Rawalpindi city and is working voluntarily in the camps.

“Conditions in these camps make them perfect breeding areas for mosquitoes and many varieties of insects. In my opinion, there is a very high probability of an outbreak of any disease like mumps, measles, scabies, malaria, diarrhoea, polio, and leishmaniasis”, said another health worker working for a respected NGO who spoke to The Lancet on condition of anonymity. “We need medicines, doctors, and qualified health workers. And we need them urgently. Any delays might result in a human catastrophe of unimaginable proportions.”….

Read full report here

Timeline on human displacement since 2004

(IRIN) – The recent conflict-related population displacements in northwestern Pakistan – with some two million internally displaced persons (IDPs) according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) – are the biggest in over 50 years, but by no means the only recent displacements.

Floods, earthquakes and conflict have led to numerous other displacements, summarized below.

2004-2006: Army operations against militants in South Waziristan, one of seven tribal territories on the Pakistan-Afghan border, led to the displacement of tens of thousands of people, according to local media, but the Geneva-based Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) has warned that estimates of numbers vary enormously.

8 October 2005: Powerful earthquake in Pakistani-administered Kashmir and parts of North West Frontier Province (NWFP) leaves 3.5 million homeless. Many spent months – and even years – in camps, but most have now returned, thanks to government-sponsored re-housing schemes.

2005-2007: Clashes in Balochistan Province, southwestern Pakistan, between government forces and Baloch tribes seeking greater autonomy lead to at least 84,000 people, mostly from the Marri and Bugti tribes, being displaced in the districts of Dera Bugti and Kohlu, according to IDMC.

June-July 2007: Floods triggered by Cyclone Yemyin hit coastal areas on 26 June, affecting 2.5 million people and displacing 300,000 in the southern provinces of Sindh and Balochistan.

October 2007: Fighting between government troops and militants around the town of Mirali, North Waziristan, creates about 80,000 IDPs. Many stayed with relatives. The number of people displaced from Waziristan exceeded 60,000 by March 2008, according to media estimates. A camp was set up for IDPs in neighbouring Bannu District by the government but it is not clear how many people used it.

25 October 2007: Government forces start fighting Taliban militants in Swat Valley (NWFP). Some 400,000-600,000 people left the area between September 2007 and February 2008, according to media reports.

February 2008: Some IDPs return to Swat after a peace deal in early 2008, but renewed conflict by the end of the year leads to further displacements (See IRIN timeline on Swat).

April 2008: Estimates of the number of people still displaced in Balochistan in the wake of the clashes there vary from 200,000 to 50,000-60,000.

3 May 2009: Government offensive against militants begins in Swat, Buner and Dir districts in NWFP. About two million displaced so far, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR). About 555,000 IDPs were reported to have been displaced by conflict from tribal areas before this latest military surge began. Most IDPs are staying with host families, placing an increasing burden on them. The NWFP government puts their number at over three million. The UK-based Islamic Relief puts the total number of IDPs in Pakistan at 3.7 million. While some IDPs have returned, most are still in over 20 camps or with relatives.

June 2009: About 40,000 IDPs are reported by national newspapers to have fled Waziristan, as fighting between government forces and militants flares up in the area.

(Sources: Internal displacement in South Asia by Paula Banerjee, Sabyasachi Basu Ray Chaudhury, Samir Kumar Das, Bishnu Adhikari, New Delhi 2005; State of Human Rights in Pakistan, Human Rights Commission of Pakistan Annual Reports: 1999, 2002, 2007, 2008; Newsline Magazine; IDMC: Internal Displacement Profile: Pakistan; International Crisis Group: The Forgotten Conflict in Balochistan, October 2007; leading Pakistani newspapers Dawn, The News.)

UN: 500,000 fleeing Swat valley

More than 500,000 people have fled fighting in north-western Pakistan in recent days, bringing the total displaced since August to 1 million, the UN refugee agency said today.

A spokesman for the UN high commissioner for refugees said the fighting had led to huge displacement in the area. Ron Redmond said up to 200,000 people had arrived in safe areas in the last few days and another 300,000 were on the move or about to flee.

This morning, Pakistani jets bombed suspected militant positions in a Taliban-controlled town as residents appealed for a pause in the fighting so they could escape to safety.

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Nearly 190,000 displaced by fighting in Bajaur

Some 190,000 people have been displaced from Pakistan’s Bajaur agency bordering Afghanistan since fighting started in the hilly region in mid-August. This number includes more than 168,000 Pakistanis now sheltering in their country’s North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and above 20,000 Pakistanis and Afghans who fled into eastern Afghanistan’s Kunar province.

The large majority of the displaced people are staying with host families on both sides of the border. UNHCR cannot access most of these areas for security reasons, and relies on government estimates.

In Pakistan, authorities say there are 168,463 internally displaced people (IDPs) in NWFP. The UN refugee agency cannot verify this figure as population movements are fluid and registration is continuing in the 10 official IDP camps.

Last Friday, UNHCR signed an agreement with the NWFP government to extend registration to IDPs living with host families. Once completed, the registration will give a clearer picture of the scale of displacement and the immediate needs.

“As the lead agency for emergency shelter, protection and camp management, UNHCR is trying to improve conditions in camps by providing urgent shelter and relief materials, as well as technical support to the government camp managers,” said a UNHCR spokesperson.

“We are helping to develop the former Afghan refugee village of Katcha Gari in Peshawar into a proper IDP camp with basic standards and services. So far, we’ve provided 900 tents, 750 plastic sheets, more than 2,200 blankets, nearly 1,500 jerry cans and 750 kitchen sets to the new arrivals at this camp. Other agencies are establishing latrines, washrooms and water tankers,” he added.

Efforts are also under way to decongest overcrowded IDP sites. An additional site is being developed to host another 750 families at the former refugee village of Jalozai in Nowshera district, close to Peshawar. – UNHCR