Kyrgyzstan Asks UN To Help Restore Facilities Destroyed In Tajik Border Conflict - UrduPoint

 Kyrgyz Foreign Minister Ruslan Kazakbaev on Friday asked the United Nations for assistance in supporting the people displaced and restoring the buildings destroyed as a result of deadly shelling on the border with Tajikistan.

Kazakbaev extended the request during a phone call with Natalia Gherman, UN Secretary-General's Special Representative for Central Asia and the head of the UN Regional Centre for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia, the Kyrgyz Foreign Ministry said in a release.

"[The minister] said that as a result of the conflict in the Batken oblast, there are internally displaced persons and destructions of infrastructure and housing.

In this regard, he expressed hope for UN support in providing assistance to internally displaced persons and their return to their places of permanent residence, as well as in the restoration of destroyed infrastructures," the statement read.

The UN representative pledged "technical assistance" to Kyrgyzstan "within the framework of existing regional and bilateral programs," according to the statement. Gherman welcomed the ceasefire agreement that Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan signed on the heels of a six-hour shootout.

Armed clashes broke out on the Kyrgyz-Tajik border on Thursday. The shelling killed dozens and injured more than 150 people on both sides before a truce was declared later that day.