UNICEF Sends Aid Supplies To Central Asia Crisis

UNICEF Sends Aid Supplies To Central Asia Crisis

UNICEF has dispatched emergency supplies to the estimated 100,000 refugees who have fled fighting in Kyrgyzstan. Ninety per cent of the refugees are women, children and the elderly.

International news media are reporting that more than 130 people have been killed and some 1,800 injured in what is being described as the deadliest ethnic violence to hit Kyrgyzstan in 20 years.

UNICEF’s initial rapid response supplies left in six trucks from Tashkent, the capital of neighbouring Uzbekistan.

The supplies comprise 76 tents, 2,210 blankets, 25 emergency health kits including bandages, soaps, sanitary napkins, disposable diapers etc.; approximately 500 kitchen sets, 1,100 T-shirts, 900 packs of water purification tablets and 1764 water containers valued at $70,000.

The refugees are located in the Fergana Valley near the border of Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. The Uzbekistan Government has opened schools and colleges to accommodate the refugees who have streamed out of Osh and Jalalabad, just across the border in Kyrgyzstan since ethnic fighting began last Thursday.

Further supplies are being procured in Uzbekistan and internationally and will be delivered as they are received.

UNICEF is deeply concerned about the condition of children in Southern Kyrgyzstan, and urges all parties to protect them.

ENDS

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