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September 18, 2001

The Guardian:"It is already a

The Guardian:

"It is already a humanitarian disaster," said Yusuf Hassan, of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Islamabad.
UNHCR:
Before any of last week’s events took place, there were already close to one million displaced people inside Afghanistan, and aid agencies were struggling to keep their heads above water. After the evacuation of all international aid agency staff, UNHCR is extremely worried that the situation for all these people – and millions of others – could deteriorate very rapidly, leading to major population movements, and even widespread deaths. Already many people are reported to be too weak even to become displaced. They simply don’t have the strength or the resources to move from their villages.
The UNHCR had a budget of $8.5M (yes, eight and a half million dollars) for its Global Appeal activities in Afghanistan. Now we'll see thousands of times that amount pouring into the region, in the form of military hardware.