UN manages “cross-line” humanitarian access

The UN scored a small but significant breakthrough in Afghanistan this week by managing to deliver badly-needed food aid “across the conflict lines” to assist some 2,600 vulnerable households in Darra Souf district, Hazarajat region, in the central highlands. Michael Semple, Regional Coordinator for Hazarajat at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance to Afghanistan, said on Friday the success was a reward for long, intensive negotiations with the Taliban movement [or Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan] and the Islamic State [or Northern Alliance] which are fighting in the area. Getting the convoy through involved considerable logistical effort. In addition to the political success of getting both sides to the conflict in this region to honour the principle that “civilians in armed conflict have a right to humanitarian assistance, irrespective of who controls the area where they live,” Semple told journalists at a press conference in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. The Darra Souf operation involved 52 trucks moving 400 mt of wheat and seven mt of supplementary feeding materials (high-energy biscuits and corn soya blend) from Kabul to a mountainous handover point at Yakaolang last Saturday and 36 other trucks transporting it from there on saturday and Sunday to various distribution points in Darra Souf. WFP spokesman Khaled Mansour said this week that the UN had no doubt that the volume of food sent to Darra Souf this week was not enough. “We have already started planning to send another food convoy,” he added. The road from Sare Thal to Darra Souf had also been mined, which required local deminers to clear the route for the passage of trucks - even to the point of checking for a mine at the last bend on the mountain road before Yakaolang on Saturday morning, Semple said. The distribution in Darra Souf, in which 2,600 of the most vulnerable households - previously identified and issued with ration cards - will receive a three-month emergency ration of 150 kg each, has been continuing since Monday. UNOCHA estimates that these beneficiaries represent a quarter of the population of 11,000 households, or about 66,000 people, in the Hassani and Nawe Ahmad Valleys of Darra Souf. A recent assessment mission in Hazarajat also confirmed the reality and seriousness of the drought in the area, where people having been making return trips of 10 hours or more in search of water where their own ‘kandas’ (underground water storage tanks, hewn from rock) had dried up. Semple said. “The hills are alive ... with donkeys carrying water panniers. Fetching water has become a full-time, main activity - displacing all others for many,” he added. August should be a time of plenty, but with crops devastated as a result of the drought and people reduced to “amazingly small portions” where food was available - and to many meals of ‘atullah’ (wheaten porridge) or wild leaves in poorer households - the prospects for the remainder of the year and through to June 2001 are worrying. There was already “excess mortality”, although the rate was unknown. There was the prospect of up to 100,000 people being displaced if they did not get access to food. Semple stressed that the UN could hope to provide 10 percent at most of the food deficit Afghanistan faces and that people’s survival depended on the market supplying the rest. This, crucially, would involve the reopening of roads to let the market operate and an end to the reported embargo by the Taliban authorities on goods destined for Northern Alliance-held areas. The list of sanctioned goods included food staples, vegetable oils, medicines, fuels, lubricants and car parts. This “internal sanctions regime” has resulted in a 100 percent increase in the price of some essential commodities, according to a report released by UNOCHA this week on vulnerability and the impact of sanctions in Afghanistan. [for full report, see: http://192.168.1.201/] While getting this week’s food convoy through was significant - especially in representing the respect of both sides for the principle of civilian’s right to humanitarian assistance - there remained many people and many places not reached, Semple said. “One success is not enough; we have to keep scoring these successes ... and the UN is seeking the response, and responsibility, of all parties to the conflict to respect the independent role it plays in delivering humanitarian assiatnce, and to allow the roads to re-open,” he added.