Aid groups in Pakistan need nearly $538 million more than the next six months to help hundreds of thousands of people displaced by army clashes against the Taliban, the U.N. said in an international appeal Tuesday.
The appeal comes as much of the world's notice is focused on helping earthquake-devastated Haiti and as security ruins tenancy along Pakistan's northwest border with Afghanistan.
A largely successful army offensive in the Swat Valley and surrounding districts has intended some 1.7 million people have returned home since being displaced last year, according to the U.N. Still, security in parts of the semiautonomous ancestral belt and other areas is weakening, leading to new internal refugees.
An estimated 1 million Pakistanis wait displaced. The majority of the refugees are staying with host families, but tens of thousands are in relief camps.
The U.N. came up with the $538 million outline after assessing the needs and goals of dozens of local and international aid agencies and the Pakistani administration. The biggest chunk of aid they requested, about $195 million, will pay for food for the displaced.
Last year, when the displacement crisis in Pakistan was at its peak, the U.N. and compassionate groups in the country managed to get $485 million of the $680 million they needed, the U.N. said.
The U.N. itself has not escaped the violence in Pakistan. Several of its employees have been killed or kidnapped over the past two years, leading it to suspend long-term progress work in Pakistan's northwest and shift some of its emigrant staff out of the country.
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