GENEVA, Switzerland, Feb. 4 (UPI) -- The Pakistani military's intensified operations against insurgents in the Mohmand tribal area could soon displace about 90,000 people, the United Nations said.
The people could be displaced by next month, the U.N. said Friday.
"We are urging authorities to ensure displaced people have freedom of movement and we have deployed staff to monitor the situation," UNHCR refugee agency spokesman Adrian Edwards said in Geneva, Switzerland, Friday.
The operations in the violence-hit northwest region, begun in 2008 and intensified since last week, have already displaced about 25,000 people as registered by the UNHCR, Edwards said.
The Taliban and other insurgents have long used the region near the border with Afghanistan as a hideout.
The agency said it has set up two camps to accommodate people fleeing the Sagi and Dawezai areas of the Mohmand agency. Many of them are reported to urgently need winter clothing and shelter.
The UNHCR said its two camps are the first to be established for the displaced people in the region since 2008. Earlier, people fled to settled areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province around Peshawar, the provincial capital.
