Countrywide Conflict Displacement
Since the beginning of the year, a total of 17,168 displaced people have been recorded in OCHA’s Displacement Tracking System (DTS), an increase of 5,500 people compared to the previous reporting period. The highest number of displaced people this year was reported from the North-Eastern Region with 13,440 IDPs and the Western Region with 2,217 IDPs.
Central Region: More than 2,100 people displaced from Nerkh and Jalrez districts to the provincial capital of Wardak Province, sparked by armed clashes between Armed Opposition Groups (AOG). Meanwhile, in Khost Province, an unconfirmed number of up to 2500 Kuchi families are reportedly stuck in the border area, and have not been reached by humanitarian partners until now. OCHA is planning a mission to Khost to assess the situation.
Northern/North Eastern Region: Some 1705 people were verified as displaced inbetween Kunduz, Baghlan, Badakhshan,
Faryab, Jawzjan provinces, with most displaced coming from Faryab (567 exactly).
Eastern Region: Over the past week local authorities indicated up to 2114 people displaced inside Nangarhar Province as follow-up to AOG intimidation and threats.
Southern/South Eastern Region: No significant new displacements have been reported from the two regions.
Western: The situation in the Western Region continues to be calm in the past week with no reports of significant displacements.
Returns to Afghanistan
From 4 to 10 February, a total of 12,483 Afghan citizens returned to Afghanistan, according to IOM. A total of 324 people returned spontaneously from Pakistan and 246 were deported. Some 4,474 people returned spontaneously from Iran, from where an additional 7,439 people were deported.
Gaps
Partners of the regional WASH Cluster and the Department of Rural Rehabilitation and Development (DRRD) continue to assess the situation in Muqur district, in Badghis province, where up to 6,600 families have minimal access to water due to the drought. Almost all people continue to have access to less than five litters of water and up to 91% of people experienced diarrhoea in the past two weeks. Further, in the Eastern Region the Food and Agriculture Clustrer is watching closely the food security conditions, as the continued dryness is likely to lead in a poor harvest.
Ongoing Response Activities(please also see page 2)
During the past week, almost 28,000 displaced people, returnees, refugees and host families received some form of humanitarian aid, including winterisation assistance.
CR: In Kabul, CARE provided cash for food (14,000 AFN / family or USD $200) to 609 displaced people. In parallel,
Islamic Relief provided food to 7,000 individuals displaced to Kabul, as part of their winter support program. In Logar Province, PIN provided multipurpose cash (24,000 AFN / family or USD $345) and to 126 individuals or 18 families. In PAktika Province, Solidarites assisted 616 displaced people with hygiene kits and 266 individuals with latrine kits. In Ghazni Province, DRC assisted 455 IDP individuals with cash assistance (18,000 AFN per family / or USD $260). Still in Ghazni, Relief International distributed non-food items to 882 individuals and APA distributed non-food items to 714 displaced individuals.
NR/NER: Nearly 5,355 displaced families received humanitarian assistance in Kunduz city, following displacements from Chardara district (3,808 exactly) and Imam Sahim district (1,547 exactly) received cash from NRC, WASH supplies from DACAAR, and food from WFP. In Sar-e-pul Province, 448 displaced people received multipurpose cash from NRC and non-food items from UNHCR.
ER: In Kunar, PU-AMI distributed cash to 469 IDPs and NCRO distributed NFIs to 553 displaced people. WFP distributed food rations to 4,305 people in several districts of Laghman, Kunar and Nuristan provinces. CWSA distributed cash for food to 84 displaced people in Laghman Province, while JEN assisted 1,155 families with hygiene kits. CoAR reached 3,000 displaced and school students with hygiene awareness sessions, school stationaries and constructed 10 latrines in Behsud and Qarghayi districts of Nangarhar and Leghman provinces. At the Torkham border crossing, partners of the Health Cluster provided consultations to nearly 2,325 returnees or IDPs and vaccinated 446 children; UFPA/AADA provided psychosocial counselling to 1,086 people and reached 4,643 returnee and displaced with health education.
SR: This week, as 1,147 displaced people were receiving a humanitarian response throughout the region, Humanitarian Coordinator’s visited border points Spin Boldak in Kandahar and Zaranj in Nimroz Provinces.
WR: While no response took place during the reporting period, humanitarian access to Farah Province continues to be a challenge. Following the diversion of WFP trucks in December 2017, local transporters refuse to transport humanitarian shipments to Farah. Air service access is also suspended for the next two weeks due to artillery shelling to the Farah airport.
Winterisation
Winterisation activities by UNHCR and the partners of the ES/NFI Cluster will continue until end of February. From midDecember 2017 to present, a total of 53,700 families have received assistance, notably cash to pay for three months of fuel for heating and 13,000 have received winter clothing.