Kyrgyzstan: Whether to rebuild and where to start?

Catherine Jones is the International Rescue Committee’s emergency protection coordinator. She is with a team of IRC emergency experts responding in southern Kyrgyzstan, where many Uzbek families are returning to looted and destroyed homes after a recent outbreak ethnic violence. She shared these photos:

Yesterday we walked through some of the worst affected areas in Osh, Furkat and Chiromski as people started coming back. It was hard to start taking pics as there was a lot of emotion and tears as people saw the extent of the damage for the first time.

A man we met who was wondering whether to rebuild and where to start. He told us that he hasn’t brought his family back yet as they have nowhere to stay. They are with relatives while he is sleeping at a mosque. He said he lost a lot of money in the house and was waiting to hear about any kind of government support. People who have received emergency food rations provided by the government in Kyrgyzstan. An Uzbek barricade Two of my IRC colleagues assessing the damage to homes We didn’t go further down the street as a man had been burnt in a house nearby and there was a funeral in progress.

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