Umargul has no family and will travel alone. He is not sure of what he will find back home and hopes that at least a portion of his house is still accessible. Khayal is traveling with his wife. He was informed that their house was burned and relies on the help of some relatives for a place to sleep. He is planning to start his orchard over to make a living.
Umargul and Khayal were displaced from the Tirah Valley due to increased hostilities between rival armed groups and security operations. They spent the last seven months in Peshawar, where they received basic humanitarian assistance, including food rations comprising wheat flour, rice, cooking oil and pulses. They hope that the Pakistani Government and the international organizations will help them get through the winter.
In the last two weeks of September some 9,000 people returned from camps and host communities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to their homes in the Tirah Valley, in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas. Despite resource constraints, Government authorities and humanitarian partners have provided them with return packages, including transport, non-food items, food and basic health-care services.
UN Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator in Pakistan, Timo Pakkala, and other senior UN officials from the Pakistani Government visited the Kohat Return Facilitation Center on a joint mission to evaluate the humanitarian support being provided to displaced families.
The Government of Pakistan contributed 75,000 metric tons of wheat allowing humanitarian support during most of 2013. Lola Castro, WFP’s representative in Pakistan, said that a second tranche of 75,000 metric tons of wheat is crucial to provide the returnees with food for at least nine additional months.