PAKISTAN: Saudi Arabia’s US$100 million donation for IDPs biggest to date

Photo: Tariq Saeed/IRIN

Displaced women and children are particularly vulnerable

DUBAI, 27 September 2009 (IRIN) - Saudi Arabia’s US$100 million pledge to the UN for the specific purpose of meeting the needs of some 2.7 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) in northern Pakistan is the largest single contribution to date for that cause, according to Martin Mogwanja, UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Pakistan.

“It will enable the humanitarian community in Pakistan to reach hundreds of thousands of people in need and help restore their homes and livelihoods,” Mogwanja said in a statement.

The Pakistani government launched a military offensive against militants in the Swat, Buner and Dir districts of North West Frontier Province (NWFP) on 3 May 2009, forcing more than 2 million people to flee their homes. Before that, intermittent conflict in northern Pakistan had driven some 555,000 people from their homes, according to UN estimates.

About 1.64 million people have returned to their homes since July 2009 and just over a million people remain displaced. The vast majority live with host families and the remainder live in 19 IDP camps.

While some IDPs are returning to homes in safe areas, others are fleeing ongoing or renewed military offensives in restive areas of NWFP and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

Photo: OCHA

The UN Secretary-General’s special humanitarian envoy, Abdelaziz Arrukban, visiting IDPs in a camp in the Mardan area of NWFP (file photo)

Saudi Arabia “compelled to assist”

In early September, Mogwanja told a press briefing in Islamabad that a lack of adequate funding for UN agencies and their implementing partners could signal “disaster” for returning IDPs and called for more help for them.

“With more than 2 million people displaced in just a few months, Saudi Arabia felt compelled to assist the humanitarian community in Pakistan so that they could more effectively meet the needs of these IDPs,” Abdul Aziz Arrukban, Special Humanitarian Envoy of the UN Secretary-General, told IRIN on 27 September.

He said the $100 million was being allocated by the Saudi Fund for Development as part of the UN-led consolidated appeal for Pakistan and that the money was immediately available.

“I am heading a committee - including Mr Mogwanja and members of OCHA [UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs] and the Saudi Fund for Development - that will meet in the coming days in Saudi Arabia to discuss how best the money can be used,” Arrukban said.

Before the Saudi donation, some $411 million, almost 55 percent, of the $680 million revised requirements for the Pakistan Humanitarian Response Plan had been funded. With Saudi Arabia’s contribution, 75 percent of the appeal will be met.

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