Pakistan:
The armed conflict in Bajaur Agency of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and Swat District of the North West Frontier Province intensified during Ramadan, forcing many more families to move into camps for the internally displaced or to seek refuge elsewhere. They urgently need food, other relief goods and health care.
When the conflict suddenly intensified, over 200,000 people left their villages in Bajaur taking practically nothing with them. "Around 80 per cent of the displaced are women and children who are now staying with host families or in improvised camps set up in schools and other public buildings," said Pascal Cuttat, head of the ICRC delegation in Pakistan. "They need everything: shelter, clean water, sanitation, health care and food."
"We have also witnessed a sharp increase in the number of people with weapon-inflicted wounds seeking treatment at local public hospitals – a clear sign of an upsurge in violence," added Mr Cuttat. "Most of the wounded from Bajaur go to Timergara hospital in Lower Dir District, which the ICRC has supported by supplying drugs and other medical items. When necessary, they are referred to one of the two ICRC-supported hospitals in Peshawar."
ICRC/Pakistan Red Crescent Society humanitarian response
The ICRC works closely with the Pakistan Red Crescent Society to help the thousands of newly displaced people. Since the beginning of the crisis, the two organizations have distributed food to about 13,000 people and essential household items to 28,000 people forced to leave their homes.
Water distribution points are being set up at three locations in Lower Dir, the nearest safe area to the combat zone. The ICRC is also setting up water storage and distribution facilities in order to guarantee basic hygiene. The two ICRC-supported hospitals in Peshawar have treated more than 200 war-wounded patients, mainly from the conflict area in Bajaur, since the crisis began in August. ICRC mobile medical units, which include surgeons and other doctors, also provide health care for the displaced.
In the current volatile environment, confidential dialogue with all parties is necessary to secure access to people in need and to ensure the security of ICRC and Pakistan Red Crescent staff. Through daily contacts, the ICRC strives to make sure that its role and its way of working as a neutral and independent humanitarian organization are understood by all. Dialogue with the parties also ensures that humanitarian aid reaches those who need it most.
Since the beginning of the crisis last August, the ICRC has also:
provided a Pakistan Red Crescent medical team in Lower Dir and Mardan Districts with enough drugs and basic equipment to conduct over 8,000 consultations;
provided medical kits for treating the war-wounded to Timergara hospital in Lower Dir and Parachinar hospital in Kurram Agency;
set up water and sanitation facilities at three sites for displaced people in Lower Dir;
provided, together with the Pakistan Red Crescent, hot meals for hundreds of families who fled Baujur for Peshawar during the initial phase of the conflict.
ICRC in Pakistan
The ICRC is currently carrying out humanitarian activities for the victims of armed conflict in the affected areas of the North West Frontier Province, the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, and Balochistan. In particular, it is providing support for the treatment of war-wounded patients by delivering medical equipment and medicines to hospitals along the north-western frontier and in Quetta. In addition, it is providing prostheses, orthoses, walking aids, wheelchairs and physiotherapy in facilities situated in Peshawar, Quetta and Muzaffarabad.
The ICRC also visits people held in Pakistani prisons, where it endeavours to ensure that their treatment and conditions of detention are humane, and that they can contact their loved ones. Since the beginning of 2008, the ICRC has been arranging for Pakistani families to communicate with relatives held at the US facility in Bagram, Afghanistan, by videophone and with those at the facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, by ordinary telephone.
The ICRC currently employs 427 staff in the country, including 46 international staff.
For more information, please contact:
Marco Succi, ICRC Pakistan, tel: +92 300 850 81 38
Carla Haddad Mardini, ICRC Geneva, tel: +41 79 217 32 26
