UNITED NATIONS: The UN Refugee Agency has stressed the need for ensuring that humanitarian assistance reaches the people fleeing South Waziristan.

‘Humanitarian access to people in need remains the key challenge for humanitarian agencies in this operation given the volatile security environment in the displacement areas,’ Andrej Mahecic, spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said in a statement.

UNHCR is supporting the registration of new arrivals in the districts of Dera Ismail Khan and Tank where some 32,000 internally displaced persons have been registered by local authorities since Oct 13.

They join more than 80,000 people who have fled South Waziristan since May this year, bringing the total number of registered IDPs to more than 112,000.

UNHCR, working through local partners, has been distributing relief items such as kitchen sets, blankets, mats and jerry cans to registeredIDPs.

Mr Mahecic said that so far, the IDPs had been accommodated by host families.

‘Generally, this has been the trend in the north-west part of Pakistan,’ he noted.

When more than two million people were displaced by the conflict between government forces and militants in the NWFP earlier this year, the majority of them were accommodated by host families. About half of those IDPs have since returned to their homes.

The government has informed UNHCR that it is considering the establishment of camps and the agency stands ready to assist in providing all-weather tents and site preparation if required.

Mr Mahecic said that in addition to the aid given to individual families, assistance would need to be extended to hospitals, schools and other public facilities that might come under strain with large influxes of people.

Meanwhile, some 3,600 people recently displaced by the conflict in Bajaur agency continue to seek shelter in Lower Dir.

Efforts are under way to pitch tents in the Wali Kandow camp in the district, while the rest of the people are to be sheltered at the Khungi Shah camp, recently vacated by displaced people who have returned to theirhomes.

The newly displaced join more than 58,000 Bajauris living in various camps in NWFP after fleeing several waves of conflict since August last year.