Afghanistan

Local and federal officials gathered at the Indianapolis International Airport Thursday to unveil a traveling mural exhibit commemorating Afghan evacuees’ time and experiences at Camp Atterbury.

Reuters reported the United Nations says Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could displace anywhere from 3 million to 5 million people. That would be the largest relocation of a population in Europe since World War II.

For the last five months, Camp Atterbury was transformed into a temporary home for more than 7,000 Afghan evacuees looking to begin new lives in America.

The U.S. government has been using Camp Atterbury to temporarily house, process and resettle nearly 7,000 people who fled Afghanistan after the Taliban took over at the end of August. About 2,500 Afghan evacuees were still waiting to be settled as of Friday morning.

More than 50,000 Afghan evacuees are temporarily housed at U.S. military bases, where they’re undergoing health and safety checks before being settled across the country.

The Muncie Afghan Refugee Resettlement Committee, or MARRC, said $10,000 will fully support a resettled family for the first six months of living in Muncie.

Soldiers from the Indiana National Guard collected and delivered the coats Friday from an armory designated as a collection site for donations to Operation Allies Welcome.

After a month of processing more than 6,000 Afghan evacuees, Department of Homeland Security officials invited journalists from 10 news organizations to get a glimpse of operations at Camp Atterbury.

Camp officials recently completed a campaign to vaccinate over 6,100 evacuees against measles, mumps, rubella, and chickenpox. Flu vaccinations will begin this weekend, as will second doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine.

More than 6,600 Afghan refugees who began arriving at the Indiana National Guard’s Camp Atterbury training post nearly six weeks ago are awaiting resettlement.