UN says record half a million Afghans displaced by war

With daily battles between the government forces and Taliban insurgents, the number of people who have fled their homes for safer parts of Afghanistan has hit a record high, the UN said Wednesday. As of November 30, 2016, more than half a million Afghans - 515,800 people - had been internally displaced by fighting, surpassing a previous record of 471,000 set last year, according to the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
The figure has more than doubled since 2014, pointing to a sharp increase in the number of people leaving their homes due to escalating violence in the war-torn country. "I am concerned these record figures show not just an alarming number of new IDPs, but a longer term crisis where increasing numbers of families in Afghanistan are facing prolonged displacement," Mark Bowden UN humanitarian co-ordinator said in a statement, referring to internally displaced people.