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Nearly 100,000 uprooted by conflict in South Ossetia: UN
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-08-12 23:43

GENEVA -- Nearly 100,000 people have been forced to leave their homes as a result of the conflict in South Ossetia, the United Nations refugee agency said Tuesday.

The figure includes some 30,000 South Ossetians that have fled to North Ossetia in Russia and up to 12,000 internally displaced within South Ossetia, said Ron Redmond, spokesman of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

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Besides, some 56,000 people from the Gori region in Georgia have also been displaced, Redmond told a news briefing in Geneva.

Georgia sent in forces last week to take hold of South Ossetia, a region that broke away from it in the 1990s and became self-governing then. Russia responded by pouring in troops to counter the Georgian forces.

The Swiss-based International Committee of the Red Cross has described the humanitarian situation in the region as "very serious," with a growing number of civilian deaths.

According to Redmond, the first UNHCR humanitarian airlift flight carrying relief supplies for civilians affected by the conflict in South Ossetia arrived in Georgia Tuesday morning.

The Boeing 707 cargo plane, delivering 34 tonnes of tents, jerry cans, blankets and kitchen sets from UNHCR's central emergency stockpile in Dubai, will be followed by a second UNHCR flight scheduled Wednesday from Copenhagen, another of UNHCR's central logistics hubs.