Access to northwest expected to improve

Northern Alliance forces, supported by the US-led coalition, have captured the strategic northern city of Mazar-e Sharif and are reported to be on the outskirts of Herat, in the west. Following unconfirmed reports that swathes of Afghanistan's northwest had fallen to Northern Alliance control, some aid workers active in the region were cautiously optimistic that access to over two million vulnerable Afghans would now dramatically improve.

Coordinator with the NGO ACTED, Kiny Mottier, told IRIN on Monday that although the situation was still fluid, and no conclusions could yet be drawn, she remained positive. "We hope this is a big change and [that] we are able to work in the area, but a lot depends on the security situation," she said.

Experts agreed that much depended on how stable the region remained, bearing in mind that past takeovers by the warring factions had entailed violence towards civilians and massacres. However, if security could be guaranteed, then substantial amounts of humanitarian aid could be routed through to Mazar-e Sharif and the surrounding provinces.

The Danish Committee for Aid to Afghan Refugees (DACAAR), also active in the northwest, shared this view. The DACAAR programme manager for western Afghanistan, Hugh Fenton, told IRIN that Afghans in the region would be relieved to be receiving sufficient aid in the face of the approaching winter.

"The opening up of Mazar can ensure sustained supplies to surrounding regions of northern and western Afghanistan, even up to Herat," he said. It was a pleasant surprise to not have reports yet of violence (towards civilians) in the areas that had changed hands, he added.

Meanwhile, relief supplies continue to be pre-positioned 40 km away at the river port of Termez, southern Uzbekistan, following an agreement between the Uzbek authorities and the World Food Programme (WFP) to open a new and more direct supply corridor.

The WFP spokesman, Khaled Mansour, told IRIN that the new route would hopefully be opened by the end of the week. "There are around 300,000 internally displaced in the north, and [overall] we are trying to reach two million people in need of food assistance. If stability and security is maintained it will translate into more access for aid that is needed there," he said.

All NGOs withdrew international staff from the region in the days following the 11 September attacks in the US, leaving national staff to implement programmes. Mottier said ACTED international staff were on standby to return to the northwest as soon as it was feasible.