Aid delivery limited by lack of information

It has been 12 days since Khair Mohammed fled his home in Musa Qala in the troubled Helmand province and sought refuge in the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah. The capture of the district centre by the Taliban three weeks ago and the fear of retaliatory bombing by international forces forced him and hundreds of other families to leave their homes, taking only essentials.

"We heard that families who came from there [Musa Qala] received help, but I have not seen any help delivered to the families here," Mohammed complained.

Neither has 40-year-old Amanullah, who fled Musa Qala nine days earlier. "We don't have a carpet to sit on and no clothes to wear. There is no work available here and I have no option but to beg," he said.

Aid agencies acknowledge the acute problems of delivering assistance to people in conflict areas, admitting that only a fraction have received help because of access difficulties, compounded by a lack of accurate information about the extent of the problem.

According to Shaheer Shariar, a spokesman for the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development (MRRD), while 1,500 families had been displaced from Musa Qala, as of Sunday only 300 had received food and non-food assistance through the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the Afghan Red Crescent Society (ARCS) and the World Food Programme.

The UN agencies, however, were still working on the basis of initial estimates that only 500-600 families had been displaced.

There is even less information about more recent displacements in the province.

Assadullah Mayar of ARCS and Mohammed Qane of the MRRD's provincial department said about 3,000 more families were displaced from the Kajaki area of the province earlier this week, but there had been no move to assist them.

Photo: Masoud Popalzai/IRIN

"One of the most difficult issues for all our actions in the south is access to the population limited by security concerns and moving battlefronts."

Margareta Wahlström, deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator

The problem of the lack of information and access in the southern provinces of Afghanistan was emphasised on Wednesday by Margareta Wahlström, the deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

At a press conference marking the end of her five-day mission to the country, Wahlström said: "One of the most difficult issues for all our actions in the south is access to the population limited by security concerns and moving battlefronts."

According to Wahlström, it was difficult to get accurate information and establish a baseline for providing help. To do so, more resources would have to be dedicated to the simple exercise of checking the information, she said.

Commenting on the situation in Musa Qala, she told IRIN that the estimates of the numbers of displaced differed hugely - one was twice as high as the other.

Meanwhile, back in Lashkar Gah, Mohammed hoped that some NGOs would provide relief to the displaced families, but even more that he would be able to return home soon to his land and his small business.

"If they can establish security in our areas we can go back to our own homes and we will not need the assistance of any government," the shopkeeper said.

There are only two circumstances under which he would return: "We will go home only if either the government assures us of security or the whole province is controlled by the Taliban. If the situation continues as it is now, we will not return. I remember very well that a bomb in our neighbourhood once killed 20 members of a family."

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