- Title: AFGHANISTAN: REFUGEE CAMP INCREASES POPULATION SINCE SEPTEMBER 11TH
- Date: 31st December 2001
- Summary: (U5) HASARE SHAHI, NEAR JALALABAD, AFGHANISTAN (DECEMBER 30, 2001) (REUTERS) 1. LV ZOOM IN SLV TWO AFGHANS ON HORIZON, KNEELING TO PRAY; AV MISSILE IN SKY; SLV MAN PRAYING OUTSIDE TENT CAMP (4 SHOTS) 0.33 2. (SOUNDBITE) (Pashto) MEER AFGHAN, FIFTY-YEAR-OLD MAN FROM MADHOU, WHO LOST EIGHT MEMBERS OF HIS FAMILY AND FORTY FIVE MEMBERS OF HIS EXTENDED
- Embargoed: 15th January 2002 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: HASARE SHAHI, NEAR JALALABAD, AFGHANISTAN/TORKHAM, AFGHANISTAN-PAKISTAN BORDER
- Country: Afghanistan
- Reuters ID: LVABTAB7TVQHY5B4VCAFSCP3KHZV
- Story Text: A refugee camp near Jalalabad is split between Afghans
who left their homes because of domestic problems
pre-September 11th and those who left after the U.S.-led
bombing campaign began.
A refugee tent city outside of Jalalabad has increased
its population by about 3,500 families since September 11th.
Nearly 8,000 families live in Hasare Shahi, according to
one of its inhabitants, most of whom lived there before the
U.S.-led bombing campaign began in Afghanistan.
"This camp is divided into two parts. One part has people
who were here before what happened on September 11th. They are
the people who came when fights started in Kabul. But the
second camp of people are those who came after the 11th of
September," said one man who lives there.
The capital city of Kabul is strategically located in a
high narrow valley, wedged between mountain ranges, and has
long been a source of factional fighting.
With a history that dates back more than 3,000 years, the
city has been destroyed and rebuilt on several different
sites. Destruction of the city increased as the coalition of
guerrilla forces broke into rival warring factions, and much
of Kabul has since been damaged by fighting. The city was
controlled by the Taliban from 1996. But, backed by the
U.S.-led war on Afghanistan, Northern Alliance fighters
captured Kabul on November 13, 2001 entering the city in
armoured vehicles just after dawn.
Many refugees at the camp also come from Tora Bora where
anti-Taliban forces are still searching for Osama bin Laden -
the prime suspect in the September 11th attacks on New York
City, Washington and Pennsylvania.
The head of the camp, Abdul Malik, has said the camp needs
help from the international community in the form of tents,
medicine and food aid.
On Saturday (December 29) trucks piled high with food aid
arrived in the Afghanistan/Pakistan border town of Torkham.
The United Nations World Food Programme recently announced
that deliveries of food aid into Afghanistan reached
unprecedented levels in December, 2001 with almost 80,000 tons
of grain and commodities in the month.
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