Pakistan said yesterday it was racing to help refugees fleeing its military offensive — an exodus of some 1.5 million with a speed and size the UN said could rival the displacement caused by Rwanda’s genocide.
Lieutenant General Nadeem Ahmed, who leads a group tasked with dealing with the uprooted Pakistanis, told reporters that the government had enough flour and other food for the displaced but said it needed donations of fans and high energy biscuits.
He also said the refugees would get money and free transport when it was safe enough to return.
A “camp is not a replacement for home,” Ahmed said, adding there were at least 22 relief camps operating.
UN officials said on Monday that nearly 1.5 million people had fled their homes in Pakistan this month.
“It has been a long time since there has been a displacement this big,” said Ron Redmond, a spokesman for the UN refugee agency.
Earlier offensives had caused another 550,000 people to flee, though Ahmed said yesterday that 230,000 people had returned to Bajur, a tribal region overrun by the Taliban and targeted in a lengthy military operation.
In trying to recall another such displacement in so short a period, Redmond said: “It could go back to Rwanda,” referring to the 1994 massacre of ethnic Tutsis by the majority Hutus in the African country.
The genocide displaced some 2 million people.
The UN believes that around 15 percent to 20 percent of the Pakistani displaced are in camps at the moment. Around 250,000 Pakistanis are in 24 camps, UN humanitarian chief John Holmes said.
Most others are probably staying with host families or at rented accommodation or other places.
Holmes’ estimate appeared at odds with a UN statement that said 130,950 people had been registered in camps. It was not immediately possible to reconcile the difference.
“The situation is volatile and changing rapidly,” Holmes told reporters at UN headquarters in New York.
Redmond, speaking in Geneva, said a lack of help for the displaced and the many thousands of families hosting them could cause more “political destabilization” for the country.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was