UNAMA calls for access to bombed village

The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) has called for the safe passage of a humanitarian convoy to a village in the southwestern province of Farah where air strikes by US forces on 4 May allegedly killed over 100 civilians.



Twenty trucks of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) loaded with humanitarian relief supplies for 1,500 individuals were stopped near Bala Boluk District because of security concerns, UNAMA said.



“UNAMA calls on all parties to ensure safe passage for the convoy,” said Nilab Mubarez, a UNAMA spokeswoman, adding that “local difficulties” had impeded the aid delivery.



It was unclear whether Taliban insurgents, who have been accused of attacks on aid workers, had impeded the convoy’s entry into the area.



“Tensions are high in the area and we are trying to alleviate them,” Aleem Siddique, another UNAMA spokesman, told IRIN adding that UN agencies needed security assurances from the local community, and security officials in order to be able to distribute the aid.



Civilian deaths



US aircraft bombed a village in Bala Boluk District on 4 May after Taliban insurgents allegedly attacked Afghan and international forces from civilian locations.



An investigation by the Afghan government found that about 140 non-combatants, most of them children, died as a result of the air strikes. A local rights watchdog, Afghanistan Rights Monitor, however, put the number of civilian casualties at 117.



A rapid assessment by the US military confirmed civilians had died as a result of the air strikes but did not give exact figures.



UNAMA said it had sent a team to the bombed area to investigate civilian deaths.



About 416 civilians lost their lives in the armed conflict between Taliban insurgents and Afghan and international forces, suicide attacks and roadside explosions in January-April 2009, said the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs’s Monthly Humanitarian Update for Afghanistan in April.



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