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Save the Children Responds to Growing Refugee Crisis in Kyrgyzstan
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Save the Children is preparing to provide relief to children and families caught up in a wave of ethnic violence and arson in Kyrgyzstan that has left parts of the country’s south in ruins.
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Save the Children, which has an office in Osh, reports that staff are accounted for and currently safe, though a number are living behind barricades. SC Country Director Will Lynch and two senior national staff arrived in Osh on Tuesday and were able to begin assessing the situation in the city. Assessments continued today in two Uzbek malhallahs, Kotgon and Cheremushke.
"Conditions are dire. People are massed together with families or in groups. Temperatures are in the 80s. Food is short supply, and the situation is likely to get worse before it gets better,” said Will Lynch, Save the Children’s director for Central Asia, which includes Kyrgyzstan. “If the violence spreads, we can expect a major displacement crisis — with tens of thousands of children and adults left destitute, homeless and, possibly, stateless for months if not longer."
Men are living in their neighborhoods, often staying with neighbors near their burned out houses. Women have been sent to Uzbekistan or are staying in mosques or large private houses that have been converted to shelters. Children do not have established areas to be in, nor activities to engage in. Sanitation and health may be increasing problems, as cases of diarrhea are reported by doctors to be on the rise. Some merchants were seen in the area, selling goods from their trucks at a 30% price increase from pre-conflict prices.
Save the Children expects to provide emergency relief supplies, child protection programs and health services as the situation for the displaced population becomes more clear.
Save the Children has been working in the region since 1992.
