Tens of thousands of Afghans are leaving Afghanistan's major cities, including Kabul, deepening an already "critical" humanitarian situation in the country, the UN's refugee agency said yesterday.
"Kandahar is half empty. People are fleeing Kabul and Jalalbad for the countryside," Kris Janowski, a spokesman for the Geneva-based UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said. "Some are trying to reach the country's borders, we don't know how many exactly."
He estimated the number of people on the move throughout Afghanistan to be in the "tens of thousands," on top of about 1 million UNHCR estimates to have been displaced previously.
"The humanitarian situation for millions of civilians including nearly 1 million displaced people is critical and may soon deteriorate in light of the evacuation of international aid agency staff," UNHCR added in a statement.
It said aid agencies "were already struggling to keep their heads above water" before the evacuations and that the situation could deteriorate very rapidly leading to "widespread death."
"Already many people are reported to be too weak to even become displaced. They simply don't have the strength or the resources to move from their villages," UNHCR said.
UN estimates were based on reports from five cities, with most of the population movements occurring around the capital, Kabul and Jalalbad for the east.
Also yesterday, Pakistan virtually shut down its border with Afghanistan, halting the flow of everything but food and calling in police to implement a new order to confine Afghan refugees to dozens of camps in Pakistan.
About two dozen supply trucks were stopped at Torkham, a border town in northern Pakistan, unable to cross. On the Afghan side, thousands of refugees fleeing hunger, drought and the possibility of a US military strike also tried to cross, but were turned away.
Both Afghanistan and Pakistan have amassed new troops and weaponry along their 2,500km border in anticipation of a possible US assault, officials said.
The closure of the border was one of several requests made of Pakistan by the US. Other requests include use of Pakistan's airspace and soil, and an exchange of intelligence material -- all in preparation for a possible retaliatory strike against Afghanistan for the deadly terrorist attacks on US soil.
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