Donations pour in to avert humanitarian crisis

Promises of financial support for the UN emergency appeal for Afghanistan launched last week have begun to pour in. But aid officials warned on Wednesday that they are running out of time to avert what the UN has called a "humanitarian crisis of stunning proportions" inside Afghanistan. Some officials said they were concerned that donations so far appeared to favour potential new refugees rather than Afghans who would have to remain inside Afghanistan.

"There is obviously potential for refugee influxes in weeks to come, and we are preparing for this," a Save the Children-US official told IRIN on Wednesday. "But we must continue to get as much food aid and other assistance as we can into Afghanistan as fast as possible to help those in need now. This is particularly critical, as many of those in greatest need will not be accessible when winter sets in," the official said.

Traditionally, aid agencies say, the month of October is a time to "stock up the larder", because two-thirds of the population, dependent on food aid before the crisis deepened, will be cut off or difficult to reach from mid-November to March, and unable to cross into neighbouring countries.

The UN appeal, launched by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on 27 September, called for US $584 million in emergency aid for assistance inside Afghanistan, and for 1.5 new refugees expected to flee, mainly into Pakistan and Iran. About half of the appeal is earmarked for these new refugees.

Indications so far are that more than US $90 million has already been formally pledged for the Afghan crisis, but some of this is believed to include old pledges made before the new appeal was launched, and some has been earmarked for communities in countries hosting refugee populations, sources said.

Aid officials in Islamabad said the US promise of a massive aid package of US $320 million would make a radical difference to the aid effort, although details as to how it would be spent were not yet clear.

There was concern that funds should be focused on alleviating conditions inside Afghanistan. On Wednesday the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said that while their focus was primarily on refugees leaving Afghanistan, they were seriously concerned over the plight of those inside the country.

A spokesman for the Federation said it would do all it could to help Afghans. "We don't know how long this crisis will last for, and winter is fast approaching in the region. But our contingency measures and the involvement in the task force in Pakistan will ensure that the Red Cross/Red Crescent provides immediate assistance to all those that need it - whenever it is required," the director of disaster operations at the Federation, Jean Ayoub, said.

Chris Kaye, head of the programme section for the Office of the UN Coordinator for Afghanistan, told IRIN that mechanisms had been set up by the UN in Geneva to track pledges and donations to the appeal, but that it was difficult to say at this stage how much new money had been received.

"Donations have been very encouraging so far, but we need to remember that it will take a massive amount of money if we are to make any lasting improvement to the lives of Afghans who stay in Afghanistan," Kaye said.

Although the UN's food agency, WFP, has stepped up food aid deliveries into Afghanistan this week, aid agencies say this is just a "drop in the bucket" compared to what is needed.

Speaking in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, an aid official told IRIN: "We are all very conscious of the fact that we need to be prepared for refugees, and that host countries need to be assured that money is coming, but we have to remember that 7.5 million people Afghans inside the country are in urgent need now. There is not enough food aid inside Afghanistan to see them through the winter months. We have only a little time left before many of these people will be out of reach."

Recent donations announced for the Afghan crisis include pledges from Canada, New Zealand, China, the UK, the US, Sweden, the EU, Netherlands, Ireland, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Greece, and private donations, including US $1 million from actress Angelina Jolie. On Thursday, Japan announced that it would contribute 20 percent of the total of the appeal for Afghanistan.

The UN's Emergency Relief Coordinator, Kenzo Oshima, who visited Pakistan and Iran this week to review aid plans for Afghanistan, told a press briefing in Pakistan on Monday that there was only a brief window of opportunity left to get vital aid to Afghanistan. While he commended efforts to prepare for new waves of refugees, Oshima said: "There are people who can afford to travel the distances to neighbouring countries, and there are people who are trapped inside Afghanistan, because they don't have any means to leave Afghanistan. We need to get help to the large number of people who need food, water, shelter and other life-saving material immediately."