UN office and aid agency premises attacked

The Afghan NGOs Security Office (ANSO), an organisation providing security advice to national and international NGOs in the country, confirmed that a bomb exploded in front of the office of an international aid organisation in the northern city of Mazar-e Sharif on Sunday. According to the group, one person was injured as a result of the explosion, which occurred outside premises belonging to French aid group Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development (ACTED). "It is believed that an explosive device was either thrown or planted against the guard hut," Nick Downie, ANSO project coordinator, told IRIN on Tuesday in Kabul, adding that the injured person was a passer-by. An ACTED staff member contacted by IRIN confirmed the explosion, but said it was not clear whether it had been a grenade attack or a planted mine. "The explosion did not affect our activities and our operations are ongoing. An investigation is underway by local police," he said. Sunday's explosion, which happened at around 8:10 in the evening, followed the discovery of an improvised explosive device, near the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) regional office in Mazar-e Sharif city centre on 8 January, the United Nations confirmed. "At approximately 6:30 in the evening on 8 January, an improvised explosive device was discovered in a ditch near the UNAMA office in Mazar-e Sharif," said Manoel de Almeida e Silva, a UNAMA spokesman. The device was deactivated by a demining team. "The chief of police was informed and police were immediately deployed to cordon off the area and await the arrival of a demining team," he said. The UN official responsible for security in Afghanistan, UNAMA Chief of Staff, Margareta Wahlstrom, condemned the attack. "We do take these attempts to destablise the work of the UN and international organisations seriously and are in close contact with the authorities to pursue the investigation," she told IRIN in Kabul. ANSO said they did not have any indication of a motive for the attack on ACTED. "We can only relate it to the previous UNAMA incident by the use of an explosive device and the short space of time between those incidents," Downie said. Although there have been a series of attacks and bomb explosions affecting the United Nations and aid organisations in southern and eastern parts of the country, ANSO said Sunday's explosion was the first against an aid agency in Mazar since early 2003. "It is very unusual to have such an attack on the doorstep of an international NGO in Mazar city, and we expect that local security forces may increase their awareness of the safety of the NGO community," Downie explained. Both incidents took place at a time when the UN is preparing to launch a disarmament programme for Afghan militia forces in Mazar-e Sharif, where up to 2,000 soldiers employed by local commanders are expected to be disarmed in a pilot project. The multi-million dollar UN-backed project aims to disarm around 100,000 former combatants across the country.