Sawt Falasteen - Aid reaches remote Pakistan valley hit by sectarian clashes

Residents have reported food and medicine shortages in parts of Kurram district, which borders Afghanistan, as the government struggles to end a reignited feud between Sunni and Shiite Muslims stemming from decades-old tensions over farmland.

After the first flight landed in Parachinar, Faisal Edhi, the director of private welfare organisation Edhi, said "two patients who require urgent surgery" would be transported back to the city of Peshawar and that "more flights would keep coming back" throughout the week.

Medicines would be also be delivered, Edhi reported.

Various truces have been announced since the latest round of fighting began, as elders from the two sides negotiate a lasting agreement.

In the meantime, the government has shut down key roads in and out of the district in an attempt to quell the violence, after a security convoy escorting residents was attacked in November, leaving more than 40 dead.

"Due to the roadblock, the system is collapsing, there is food shortage ... the injured are suffering," Munawar Hussain, a resident stranded in Kurram, told AFP.

"The jirga that has been ongoing for days has yielded no results, causing frustration among the locals," Shahid Kazmi, another resident told AFP, referring to the council of elders.

Mobile and internet services are also disrupted in the area.

Members of the Shiite community are also particularly vulnerable as they must pass through Sunni-majority neighbourhoods to reach essential services.

At least 133 people have been killed and 177 wounded in sporadic clashes since November 21.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said 79 people had been killed in the region between July and October.

Police have regularly struggled to control violence in Kurram, which was part of the semi-autonomous Federally Administered Tribal Areas until it was merged with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in 2018.

The feuding is generally rekindled by disputes over land in the rugged mountainous region, and fuelled by underlying tensions between the communities adhering to different sects of Islam.

H.Nasr--SF-PST