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Thursday, 21 June 2001

UN camps for northern Afghanistan

Published in News Digest

By empty (6/21/2001 issue of the CACI Analyst)

The United Nations is to set up camps for the first time in the north of Afghanistan, to house tens of thousands of people displaced by war and three years of drought. The BBC Afghanistan correspondent says, until now, world attention has focused on the huge camps in the south, and in neighbouring Pakistan, where more than a-million people have sought refuge. But the UN says immediate action is needed to avoid a catastrophe in the north.
The United Nations is to set up camps for the first time in the north of Afghanistan, to house tens of thousands of people displaced by war and three years of drought. The BBC Afghanistan correspondent says, until now, world attention has focused on the huge camps in the south, and in neighbouring Pakistan, where more than a-million people have sought refuge. But the UN says immediate action is needed to avoid a catastrophe in the north. In the past month alone, tens of thousands of Afghans have flooded into the main northern city of Mazaar-i-Sharif. Aid workers say many lack water or proper shelter. The UN says it will set up one camp near Mazaar-i-Sharif, and a second in Baghlan province, both housing 5,000 people. (BBC)
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