Kyrgyz violence may affect up to 1 million people: UN agencies

20:06, 18 June 2010

GENEVA. June 18. KAZINFORM Humanitarian agencies need to be prepared to assist as many as 1 million people affected by the violence in Kyrgyzstan, the World Health Organization (WHO) and other UN agencies said on Friday; Kazinform refers to Xinhua.

"We are working with a planning figure of 1 million people that have been directly or indirectly affected by this event," said Giuseppe Annunziata, the WHO's coordinator for emergency response and operations, at a news briefing.

Annunziata said those people include refugees who have fled to neighboring Uzbekistan as well as displaced persons within the border of Kyrgyzstan.

Speaking at the same briefing, UNICEF spokeswoman Christiane Berthiaume said the 1 million figure was an estimated one, which meant to help aid agencies make preparations.

Besides refugees and displaced persons, the figure also includes families providing shelter to displaced persons and others who have been affected in one way or another by the ethnic conflict in the country; Kazinform cites Xinhua.

See www.xinhuanet.com/english2010/ for full version

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