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The U.N. refugee agency said Monday that nearly 1.5 million people have fled their homes in Pakistan this month, and that fighting between government forces and Taliban militants is uprooting more people faster than probably any conflict since the Rwandan genocide of the 1990s. "It has been a long time since there has been a displacement this big," said UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond, trying to recollect the last time so many people were uprooted in such a short period. "It could go back to Rwanda," Redmond said, referring to the 1994 massacre of ethnic Tutsis by the majority Hutus in the African country. "It's an enormous number of people." Redmond spoke as the U.N.'s refugee chief Antonio Guterres returned from a three-day mission to Pakistan, and as Taliban forces vowed to resist military advances in the northwestern Swat Valley until their "last breath." He said the newly uprooted added to over 550,000 people who were already registered as displaced in northwest Pakistan, meaning there are over 2 million people separated from their homes in the country. "Humanitarian workers are struggling to keep up with the size and speed of the displacement," Redmond told journalists in Geneva, where UNHCR has its headquarters. He said a lack of help for the displaced and the many thousands of families hosting them could cause more "political destabilisation" for the country. The U.N. believes around 15 to 20 percent of the displaced are in camps at the moment — around 250,000 in some 24 camps, U.N. humanitarian chief John Holmes said, "which means most people are either with host families, communities, in rented accommodation or somewhere else." "The situation is volatile and changing rapidly," Holmes told reporters at U.N. headquarters in New York. The International Organization for Migration was sending trucks full of quilts, sleeping mats and other goods to help the influx of people in camps near the city of Peshawar, said spokesman Jean-Philippe Chauzy. Still, they were only reaching a fraction of the displaced. U.N. humanitarian spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs said the global body was preparing to launch an international appeal for aid programmes in the country by the end of the week. Redmond said it would have to be in the "hundreds of millions of dollars." "We know these are tough economic times, but we believe the same international community that has found billions to rescue financial systems also has an obligation to rescue people in need," he said. Holmes said the U.N. had previously asked for an extra $150 million and had only received $50 million in firm contributions as of last week, but since then a number of countries have made pledges. Holmes said he's confident the $150 million will be funded — and expressed hope that the new appeal, covering 12 months, will be as well. Since the U.N. doesn't know when the fighting will end and how quickly people will be able to return to their homes, Holmes said the U.N. is planning for a large number of people to remain displaced "for a signficant amount of time because that's the most prudent assumption to make." He said the U.N. is also reminding all sides to "make sure that civilians are protected insofar as is possible, that they're not targeted, that areas where they're known to be are avoided, that people are not using civilians as protection or human shields." Further information