Afghan Conflicts: 54,000 people displaced in 3 months

More than 54,000 people in Afghanistan have been displaced by internal conflicts and militancy so far in 2018, the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Afghanistan (OCHA) said on Tuesday.

“As fighting rages in different places, a total of 54,063 people have been displaced by conflict since the beginning of the year,” according to OCHA’s Displacement Tracking System (DTS) in a statement issued in Kabul.

The DTS tracks displacement based on humanitarian assessments.

Provinces hosting the highest number of displaced families are Kunduz with 13,615 internally displaced persons (IDPs) and Takhar with 5,740 IDPs, according to the statement.

In Kabul province, where the nation’s capital is located, more than 1, 200 IDPs arrived from Logar, Nangarhar, Jawzjan and Faryab provinces.

In the western Farah province, around 800 people reportedly arrived Farah from six districts following clashes between armed groups and security forces.

The remaining IDPs were forced to flee to safer places in central, southern and eastern regions.

Afghan officials and humanitarian agencies have expressed concern over the increasing numbers of displaced families in the country.

More than one million Afghans have been displaced due to conflicts since 2001 as the worsening security situation and ongoing insurgency forced people to leave their homes for safer places.

More than 445,000 Afghans were displaced in 2017.