Ongoing conflict in Afghanistan has forced 91,022 people to leave their homes since the beginning of 2017, a United Nations report said on Monday .
However, that number marks a 40 per cent decrease compared to the same period in 2016, during which 152,841 individuals were displaced, the report said.
A UN officer said that there was a number of reasons for the decrease.
“For one, some of the fighting continues in the same areas, like last year,’’ Mohammad Naseer Malikzai, a UN humanitarian affairs officer in Kabul said.
“There, many people have already fled their houses.”
Secondly, poverty has increased, Malikzai said, meaning some no longer have the resources to move large families elsewhere.
Thirdly, in the big cities, which had previously been regarded as relative safe havens, insecurity has increased over the past months, Malikzai added.
The capital Kabul has become a target for attacks by Taliban, which have left hundreds of civilians dead or injured.
“So, people think, if the cities are also not safe any more, then it is better to stay in their own places,” Malikzai said.
The report registers displacement in 29 of 34 provinces of Afghanistan and says that the security situation across all regions has grown more volatile as clashes continued in a number of provinces.
In 2016 as a whole, more than 660,600 civilians fled their villages and homes.
(Source: NAN)