UN suspends mine-clearance after staff ambushed

Following an ambush on an ambulance of the United Nations Mine Action Centre for Afghanistan (UNMACA) in Afghanistan’s volatile southeastern province of Zabol late on Monday, UNMACA announced that it had suspended operations in insecure areas of the south until adequate security was provided. The attack left two UNMACA Afghan staff injured. "The incident was a setback to our operations, and now we realise there are certain areas we won’t be able to operate [in]," Tammy Hall, an external relations officer for UNMACA, told IRIN in the Afghan capital, Kabul, on Wednesday. She added that they would suspend operations in remote areas lacking security. The United Nations Assistance Mission to Afghanistan (UNAMA) said on Thursday new security measures would be temporarily introduced in the region. "As a result of the attack on the deminers in Zabul, the UN temporary suspends all road missions from south of Ghazni towards Kandahar. Also, there will be no UN road movement within the country before 6:00 am and after 6:00 pm," Manoel de Almieda el Silva, a UNAMA spokesman, said in Kabul. The incident took place on the major road from Kabul to Kandahar, where the agency is clearing mines to facilitate the reconstruction of the 540-km road, one of the major highways of connecting the south of the country to the capital in the centre, and onwards to the north. "UNMACA is doing a significant operation along the sides of the road between Kabul to Kandahar, and for the reconstruction of the road to be completed, big mine clearance must be undertaken and the area must be checked," Hall said, adding that they would be ceasing all operations in insecure parts of the road where security patrols were unavailable. The ambulance was attacked in Shah Juy District of Zabol Province at 18:00 local time when the agency's three-vehicle convoy was proceeding towards the western city of Herat. "Two vehicles were allowed to go, and the bandits stopped the third vehicle, which was an ambulance," Hall noted. The attackers had then asked the UN staff where the international staff were. "When [the attackers realised] there were no international staff, they fired at the individuals in the ambulance," she said. According to UNMACA, two of its staff were injured and the attackers escaped. Hall said the aim of the attack had definitely been attempted murder. "Based on what the attackers said to our staff, we assume that the intent was primarily to target internationals, but the assailants said they also wanted to attack associated individuals," she said. UNMACA said it would be assessing operational security and might take certain measures to postpone operations in risky areas. "Some areas along the road we will continue [to operate in], because those areas are felt to be secure," Hall added. The ambush took place just two days after another armed attack on a vehicle belonging to the Afghan Development Agency on the same highway in the central province of Vardak, killing its driver and injuring another aid worker. In a similar attack on 22 April, two operatives working with a UN-funded mine-clearance agency were wounded on the main highway from Kabul to the border with Pakistan in eastern Afghanistan.