Aid distribution, suspended after twin suicide attacks killed 43 displaced people in northwest Pakistan at the weekend, should resume by the end of the week, the head of the UN's emergency office said on Tuesday.
But other UN and NGO programmes are in danger of being cut or closed because of lack of funding from the international community.
About 300 people, displaced by fighting between the Pakistani army and militants, were queuing for food and shelter assistance at a UN registration point in Kohat district on Saturday when two suicide bombers, dressed in burqas, attacked.
The United Nations subsequently suspended humanitarian operations in Kohat as well as the neighbouring region of Hangu, where it is assisting more than 250,000 people who have fled fighting in Afghan border areas.
Manuel Bessler, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said the two displacement camps in Hangu were still “fully operational” but that registration activities and distribution of aid to those outside camps had been suspended.
“The tragedy is not in suspending our activities, but the fact that 43 people were killed. Obviously, we cannot go back to business-as-usual after such a big tragedy. We have to review security arrangements,” Bessler told Reuters by telephone from Islamabad.
“We have a meeting on Wednesday, so I think we will be able to restart our activities before the end of the week.”
He said the United Nations and other international aid agencies working in the area would screen more rigorously at registration and distribution points, and stagger aid handouts to avoid large gatherings.
DWINDLING AID MONEY
But while the camps in Hangu and Kohat are operating, overall funding levels for humanitarian assistance is dwindling.
Only about $170 million has been received by the UN and NGOs to meet the needs of the 1.3 million people displaced and two million more just returned home, according to the Pakistan Humanitarian Forum, an association of 35 of the largest international NGOs operating in Pakistan.
Programmes involving health and nutrition, hygiene and sanitation and economic assistance are either closing or in danger of closing, possibly affecting more than 1 million people.
Millions of Pakistanis are displaced - living in camps or with host families - as a result of military offensives against al Qaeda-linked Taliban militants that began in 2008.
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