235,000 IDP's

Amnesty reports on Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Afghanistan:

Thousands flee fighting and hunger in Afghanistan
18 February 2009 - Amnesty International

... Around 235,000 people are currently displaced in Afghanistan, according to estimates by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Most are displaced as a result of the fighting between government forces (and allied US and NATO troops) and armed opposition groups including the Taleban, particularly in the South, Southeast and Northwest regions of the country...

Most people displaced by fighting in Afghanistan have remained in southern Afghanistan, including in camps near Kandahar, where they remain vulnerable to ongoing fighting between government forces and the Taleban and are largely cut off from international assistance...

A 35-year-old mother of eight in an informal camp in Kabul told Amnesty International:

"It’s about a year since we became displaced from Helmand province to Kabul because of the fighting [between government and Taleban insurgents]. Our homes were bombed [by NATO forces] and we lost everything we had. Here we have nothing, no job and no assistance. It was a long time ago when we received some rice and coal from an Afghan businessman. Since then we have nothing and I have to spend days and nights with no food." ... (link)

Related:

• November 2007: UNHCR counts 129,000 IDP's just in southern Afghanistan - a figure which does not include an additional 100,000 people recently displaced by conflict in the south.

• May 2008: IDP's are cautious of returning home. One northerner said: "Commanders and warlords in the north are still seizing people’s land and forcing them to abandon their houses; so how can we return?"

• October 2006: The Senlis Council's Norine MacDonald reports that IDP's are "starving" while Canadian soldiers are stationed some 15 minutes away with no mandate to assist them.