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United Nations pleads for more cash for IDPs

* Number of displaced people crosses 3 million

ISLAMABAD/UN: United Nations officials in Pakistan warned on Thursday that a fund to help the people displaced by an anti-Taliban offensive remained woefully short, with medical supplies running low.

According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), about 10 percent of the internally displaced persons (IDPs) are living in camps while the rest stayed with friends or in communal buildings, APP reported.

Last Friday, the UN had appealed for $543 million to provide the IDPs with food, medicine, shelter and other assistance, but so far the response has been lacklustre.

"Out of this $543 million, only $88 million is funded, which is way too little to respond in an effective and timely manner to the crisis that we have," said Manuel Bessler, head of UN humanitarian agency OCHA.

Donors had already committed that $88 million before the fresh appeal and since then only $100 million more had been promised – money that had not yet reached the UN.

Khalif Bile Muhammad, the World Health Organisation representative in Pakistan, said they had enough medicine stocks to last only until June.

Total displaced: The number of people displaced by the fierce fighting in the NWFP has now reached 3 million, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) said.

In an interview with New York-based UN radio, UNICEF Pakistan’s Deputy Representative Luc Chauvin warned the IDPs still faced a humanitarian catastrophe unless the international community responded urgently to the recent appeal for funds launched by the UN and the humanitarian community.

Pakistan has called for one billion dollars to help the uprooted civilians rebuild their lives, but it remains unclear when they will be able to go home. agencies

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