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In shift, UN supports setting up camps for displaced in northern Afghanistan

In shift, UN supports setting up camps for displaced in northern Afghanistan

Reacting to the displacement of tens of thousands of people in northern Afghanistan, the United Nations today said it would set up camps in that region, reversing an early policy which held that it would be better to discourage Afghans from congregating in organized shelter areas there.

The Office of the UN Coordinator for Afghanistan said the move comes as the country's people suffer the effects of "war, drought and widespread poverty that is, itself, an outcome of the deepening crisis." Aid workers, despite their best efforts to care for the beleaguered Afghans, report that much more needs to be done to head off a catastrophe.

With resources stretched to the limit - or, worse, exhausted - families in northern Afghanistan are beginning to experience malnutrition. "Some of these families have coped for as long as they can," said UN Deputy Coordinator Antonio Donini. "Now, they are simply at the end of their rope."

Previously, the aid community in northern Afghanistan discouraged the establishment of large, centralized camps for internally displaced persons, preferring to encourage Afghans to stay where they were, often in makeshift shelters. However, relief workers had trouble evenly assisting the vulnerable people, who were scattered in different locations.

Estimating that there are 150,000 displaced people in northern Afghanistan, the UN warns that this figure "seems to be rising dramatically." The humanitarian situation of the country as a whole is in a sharp downward spiral that is expected to continue through next summer.