GENEVA, Sept 23: The United Nations refugee agency said on Tuesday it was seeking $17.2 million to help more than 300,000 people forced from their homes in Pakistan by floods and fighting.

“There are now an estimated 90,000 internally displaced people in Pakistan’s North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) due to the ongoing fighting in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan,” UN High Commissioner for Refugees spokesman William Spindler told journalists.

“Another 90,000 are believed to be displaced in Swat in northern NWFP, based on a recent government assessment. In addition, some 84,000 people were displaced by floods in August,” he said.

Around 28,000 internally displaced people are living in nine official government camps in the province but the majority are staying with host families.

In total the UNHCR is aiming to provide non-food relief items to 310,000 people, in anticipation that the number of displaced people will continue to grow, Spindler said.

The UNHCR has already distributed tents, plastic sheets, blankets and kitchen sets to 12,000 affected families, and is now replenishing its stocks at its main warehouse in Peshawar.

The Red Cross said last month that more than 200,000 people had fled intensified fighting in areas along the Afghan border that serve as Taliban sanctuaries. About 14,000 people were in Afghanistan’s Kunar, it said.—AFP