About 40,000 leave before new Pakistan battle

[Adsos Letter]

Source: Reuters

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – About 40,000 Pakistanis are on the move even before a military offensive begins in the Taliban stronghold of South Waziristan, U.N. officials said on Monday, and are headed for communities already stretched to the limit.

Nearly 2 million people have fled fighting in northwest Pakistan, most since early May when the military began an offensive against Taliban insurgents, prompting the United Nations to launch an appeal for $543 million in aid to avert a long-term humanitarian crisis.

About 35 percent of that figure has been reached, U.N. special humanitarian envoy Abdul Aziz Arrukban told Reuters, but the target has taken on a new urgency now that many thousands more displaced can be expected from South Waziristan.

"It should be more, it should be bigger than that number but I believe some countries are working on donations now and hopefully we will get it fairly soon," said Arrukban, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's humanitarian envoy since 2007.


Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090622/ts_nm/us_pakistan_displaced