UN appeal for funds tomorrow: Severe food shortage in conflict zone

UNITED NATIONS - The United Nations plans to issue another flash appeal on Friday for additional funds to care for the tens and thousands of people displaced from Pakistan’s northwest where the country’s military is trying to dislodge Taliban militants, a UN spokesperson said Wednesday.
At a news briefing in New York, Spokesperson Marie Okabe gave no figure for the amount being sought, saying it will be based on the needs of the UN agencies engaged in the enormous relief work.
Soon after the Pakistani military launched its operations in the Swat valley, the UN had called for $150 million to meet the humanitarian needs of the fleeing civilians. But that amount was now considered insufficient to meet the enormity of the challenge.
Meanwhile, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refuges (UNHCR) has said it is crucial to set up more camps and ensure speedy access to assistance.
Almost 1.5 million people have escaped fighting between government troops and militants in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) in recent weeks, according to the UNHCR.
“Thousands of displaced people continue to arrive in camps and to approach registration centres”, UNHCR Spokesman Ron Redmond told reporters in Geneva Wednesday, according to a transcript issued at UN headquarters in New York.
He said on average, some 100,000 people have been registered daily in the 89 registration points established in Mardan, Swabi, Nowshera, Peshawar, Kohat and Charsaddda districts of NWFP.
With reports of thousands of new arrivals in Abbottabad, Mansehra and Haripur, the agency is planning to help setting up more registration centres to ensure the internally displaced persons (IDPs) can get the help they need as quickly as possible, he added.
Of the nearly 1.5 million people that have fled so far, some 131,000 people are staying in camps, with more than 1.3 million staying at private accommodation with host families or friends, and some in schools.
The new influx is in addition to the over half a million people registered in NWFP who had fled other parts of the northwest, including the tribal areas, over several months since August 2008.