KABUL: Thousands of families displaced by conflicts in southern Ghazni province urgently need humanitarian aid as they pin their hopes on the elusive Afghan peace to put an end to their miseries.
Inamullah Gawhar, head of the International Organization of Migration (IOM) in Ghazni, told OrbandNews that 8,500 families affected by war had been displaced from different areas of the province to the provincial capital.
IOM has distributed three blankets and a package of winter clothes to 255 families each in addition to handing them an amount of 15,350 Afghanis in cash, Gawhar said, adding the organization planned to assist 1,500 families this year.
Gawhar added that conflict displaced 95 percent of these families while five percent others were victims of natural disasters and those who had returned from Pakistan and Iran.
Mohammad Ashraf, one of the displaced persons, said that he shifted his family from Moqur district of Ghazni to the provincial capital due to a lack of working opportunities and violence in their region.
He asked warring sides to agree on peace so those people wandering for jobs would be able to find employment opportunities for themselves.
Mohammad Ali, an internally displaced person, said that war had forced them to leave their areas and chose a miserable life in the capital of Ghazni. However, he said that IOM assisted him with 15,350 Afghanis that would help him go through the cold winter in relative warmth.
IOM, DRC and WSTA are organizations that provide humanitarian assistance to war-affected people in Ghazni.
The number of people displaced by conflicts has increased by double this year in Ghazni province. Around 3,500 families have been displaced from the Arzo area of the province alone this year.
If the government does not provide immediate assistance, the IDPs will struggle with their lives enduring throughout the cold winter and poverty.
These families said that if there were no war, they would return to their regions and their economic issues would be resolved by working on their own farms.