Feature: Winter adds to miseries of Afghan tent dwellers

Rain and cold weather have further added to the suffering of tent dwellers in the Afghan capital Kabul, especially for children who are living with the lowest amenities during the freezing winter.

In the Darulaman area, southwest of Kabul city, hundreds of families,internally displaced people, and former refugees, have returned from Pakistan, living in a makeshift camps with each family consisting on average of 10 members. Children in the camps are trembling because of the cold weather with wood as the only source of heating.

"We have no homes and are living under unstable roofs. It becomes especially hard in winter and we are seriously in need of help but no one hears our voice -- our calls fall on deaf ears," a returnee Sallam Khan, 55, told Xinhua.

Thousands of Afghan refugees who used to live in Pakistan and have returned to their country are facing a variety of challenges over resettlement inside their home country.

Hundreds of poor and unprivileged Afghans, mostly war displaced people, have been living in tents in makeshift camps in Kabul during the harsh winter, with the temperature mostly below zero.

"We have been living here for the past 8 years, but have not received any assistance either from the government or national community to change our living condition, although the international community has contributed billions of U.S. dollars to Afghanistan over the past decade," Khan said.

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR),more than 5.8 million Afghan refugees have returned home since 2002,representing 20 percent of Afghanistan's population, but shelter remains the most pressing need for the returnees.

A UNHCR report showed that by mid-2014, 683,000 people were internally displaced by the conflict affecting 30 of the country's 34 provinces. More than half of Afghanistan's internally displaced people(IDPs) have been living in urban areas.

"I have 11 family members but only I am working and earning around 200 Afghani (about 4 U.S. dollars) per day to support my family. This current winter I didn't receive any donations from the government or humanitarian organizations," Khan added.

Hundreds of thousands of Afghans, particularly the internally displaced people or those without permanent homes, have left their houses to move to safer places due to the continuing fighting between government security forces and the Taliban militants, over the past years.

The conflict-related civilian casualties here have been on a constant rise.

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) in a report released here recently, documented 10,548 civilian casualties (3,699 deaths and 6,849 injured), marking a 25 percent increase in civilian deaths, and a 21 percent increase in injuries. This makes for an overall increase of 22 percent in civilian casualties compared to 2013.

"We don't have enough food, heating materials and winter clothes. If the government and humanitarian organizations do not pay attention to our plight, we may lose our children due to the bitterly cold weather," Abdul Rahim,himself also displaced, said. Endi