Focus on security

With the security situation worsening in northern and southern Afghanistan, the international aid community fears that deteriorating access could leave hundreds of thousands of Afghans without food in the coming months, UN and humanitarian sources told IRIN on Thursday. While the northern region of the country has seen increased incidents of looting, robberies and kidnapping, allowing for only minimal assistance to be provided in the city of Mazar-e Sharif, the southern province of Kandahar has been completely off limits to many international aid agencies due to the US bombing targetted at terrorist training camps, Taliban military positions and possible al-Qaeda hideouts. Security concerns in parts of the western region have also limited international relief efforts. Meanwhile, aid workers in the east near Jalalabad were forced to leave their posts following intense US-led bombings in the hunt for Osama bin Laden and his terrorist network. Northern Region There is evidence of pockets of Taliban fighting in some parts of the northern region. "Looting and banditry continue to pose a threat in some areas, and in some cases, obstructions are being caused by local authorities," spokesperson for the Office of the UN Co-ordinator for Afghanistan, Stephanie Bunker, told IRIN on Thursday. "The situation in the northern city of Mazar-e Sharif is volatile and changing from day to day," Bunker added. She said insecurity was the single most serious hurdle affecting normal delivery of humanitarian assistance. The UN was also concerned about increasing reports of looting and kidnapping which seemed to be targeted at Tajik and Pashtun minorities. "Several disappearances have also been reported. Armed robberies are also on the increase," she said. A recent revolt by some 500 Taliban prisoners at the Qala-e-Jangi fort near the northern city of Mazar-e Sharif set back UN plans to enable international staff to return to the city. A total of 235 bodies were recovered from the site by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) following the shootout between Taliban prisoners-of-war and Northern Alliance (NA) forces. "The situation is over at the fort so far as we know," ICRC spokesman in Kabul, Bernard Barrett told IRIN. Security in the area, however remained uncertain he added. With thousands of displaced people across the northern region, there has been great concern over food supplies reaching the needy. "There is small scale distribution in Mazar despite the insecurity there," spokeswoman for WFP in Islamabad, Lindsey Davis told IRIN. She explained that food was being distributed to some 15,000 people in and around the city but that there was an estimated 250,000 in need of supplies. "Mazar is an important logistical base for us. It is one access route into the north but is temporarily out of use," she said. Davis said although they had not stopped humanitarian deliveries to Mazar, the security situation had made access difficult for them, allowing them to reach only "a fraction of the people". The UN said that except for very few areas in the northeastern region, the capital Kabul and the western province of Herat, most parts of the country remained inaccessible to UN international staff. The worst affected areas were the entire eastern and southern regions and parts of the north which had been sporadically difficult or impossible to reach. "We still have serious security concerns over Mazar," Davis noted. In the northern province of Konduz, the security situation was said to be much the same if not worse, resulting in a blockade of humanitarian efforts. "Konduz is out of bounds for WFP," she said. Two offices belonging to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) were taken over by Northern Alliance forces from Taliban forces who had previously occupied the buildings. "Our operations have been completely shut down there for the whole month of November," programme coordinator for IOM Afghanistan, Jeff McMurdo, told IRIN in Islamabad. The offices were reportedly converted into military installations preventing staff from returning to the province to continue serving nearly 9,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs). "We are the focal point for IDPs in Konduz but our operations have been stopped due to security concerns," he added. IOM was assisting IDPs with non-food relief in two camps in the province, Baghe Sherkat and Amirabad, a former camp for Tajik refugees. But there were now fears that many people had been displaced again. "Amirabad was turned into a battleground and most of the displaced left the camp," McMurdon explained. He added that some 600 displaced people who'd moved from the camp had been identified in the in the Bangi district of Konduz. "The urgent need now is to identify displaced people experiencing further displacement," he stressed, saying that IOM hoped to restart activities to help the vulnerable as soon as they could. Southern Region With reports of increased bombardment by US-led war planes in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar, concerns have heightened over the safety and assistance that can be provided there. "The entire southern region has not received food deliveries over the past two weeks because of the security situation. If this situation continues and the war is protracted, suffering will continue, displacement may increase and in many cases, people will die," Bunker warned. WFP has not been able to send aid into Kandahar for the past few weeks and now fears the worst. "We are extremely concerned about the situation in Kandahar. There are some 238,000 people in need of food aid there," Davies said. She added that food air drops were not an option there as it was not safe enough for staff to distribute on the ground. One of the problems experienced by WFP is the fact that truck drivers in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta were reluctant to drive into Kandahar for fear of being caught up in the US-led operation. "We have also heard that food prices have increased in the market which means that there will be fewer people with purchasing power," Davies warned. Western Region The delivery of food to the western province of Ghowr has posed a major challenge to WFP in the past weeks as truck drivers were reluctant to travel there due to insecurity and remoteness, Davies explained. She added that some 436,000 people were in need of food assistance in this area, requiring a minimum of 21,800 mt of food for 6 months. The food agency was attempting to supply Ghor through the southern corridor from Pakistan which had been thwarted due to heavy insecurity in and around Kandahar, she said. In the neighbouring province of Badghis, the situation was somewhat calmer according to the British-based NGO Ockenden International. "We have regular contact with our team manager in Bala Morghab (a northern district of Baghdis) and have not received any reports of deteriorating security," regional programme manager for Ockenden International in Islamabad, Steven Peart told IRIN. He added that there had been an influx of displaced people highlighting the need for more assistance there. "Between 1,500 and 2,000 Pashtun families have arrived in the district and who are in desperate circumstances, sleeping out in the open," he said. Eastern Region Meanwhile, the intensity of the bombardment in Tora Bora south of the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad in pursuit of members of the al-Qaeda network had forced three international staff from Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) to withdraw from there. "There is an increased threat there and we felt it was prudent to come out," head of mission for MSF Afghanistan, Tim Pitt told IRIN in Islamabad on Thursday. He added that there were an alarming number of civilian injuries coming out of that area but could not elaborate on numbers, but said that people did not understand why so many civilians were being killed. MSF has provided the local hospital in Jalalabad with an ambulance and was sending surgical supplies to other areas in need of medical help. Pitt also warned of increased displacement there. "We were working in a refugee camp outside Jalalabad where there were an estimated 500 Afghan families a few weeks ago. Now we think this number has risen to 2,000 families."