UN workers continue to return

The number of UN foreign workers that have returned to Afghanistan has now reached 24, but will not exceed a ceiling of 34, UN sources in Islamabad told IRIN on Wednesday. Previously, 64 international staff worked in the country but this was scaled down to 34 one week before a UN Security Council decision to impose further sanctions on the ruling Taliban movement on 19 December. This was then followed by a complete pullout. “Except for the increased fighting in central parts of the country, as far as we are concerned there is no security problem for UN staff members in Afghanistan,” the UN source said. He added, however, that a ceiling of 34 would be maintained until the situation was further clarified. Meanwhile, an official at the Taliban Embassy in Islamabad told IRIN on Wednesday that Afghanistan was allowing all humanitarian organisations, including the UN, to continue their operations, except for the political offices of United Nations Special Mission for Afghanistan (UNSMA). “Despite the sanctions which we deem biased and unlawful, we are maintaining security for all these organisations,” the source said. “The security situation is good and there has been no change or problem for the humanitarian organisations working there.” Earlier, news sources reported that the Taliban had ordered security measures to be tightened across the country in the wake of more UN foreign workers returning to the war-ravaged country and that Taliban supreme leader Mulla Muhammad Omar had called upon Afghans to exercise restraint