'UN appeal for IDPs 72pc funded'

UNITED NATIONS - The United Nations flash appeal to help the people, who has been displaced by military operations in Pakistans northwest, has now been 72 per cent funded, UN Spokesman Martin Nesirky said Monday.
The appeal, originally for $540 million, was revised upwards to about $640 million as the UN continues to provide relief to the uprooted civilians in South Waziristan and elsewhere, despite security concerns.
John Holmes, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, said last month that nearly 60 per cent of the revised amount had been funded. He called the response satisfactory.
The United Nations issued the appeal in the wake of the anti-Taliban military operations in the Swat region from where tens of thousands of civilians fled to other parts of the North West Frontier Province to take shelter with their families or in the UN camps. Most of them have now gone back following the operations to flush out the militants. The appeal was later upgraded by about $100 million after Pakistan Army launched a similar offensive in South Waziristan.
At that time, Holmes denied any scaling back in UNs humanitarian operations in South Waziristan following terrorist attack at the UN World Food Programmes office in Islamabad.
While international staff had been cutback because of the security situation, Holmes said Pakistani workers, along with NGOs personnel, continue to provide relief some 300,000 IDPs from Waziristan, most of whom are staying with their relatives.