Four Nepalese men contracted by the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) to do security work and their Afghan driver died on Tuesday in a roadside bomb explosion in the volatile province of Kandahar in southern Afghanistan, UN and Afghan officials said.
“We grieve for our lost colleagues and call on the Government of Afghanistan to bring the perpetrators of this incident into justice,” Aleem Siddique, a spokesman for the UN Assistance Mission for Afghanistan (UNAMA), told IRIN on Tuesday.
A remote-controlled bomb was detonated as a UN road convoy was passing in Kandahar City, a UNAMA statement said.
It was not known who was behind the attack.
Insecurity has largely affected the delivery of humanitarian and development aid in the south and south-east areas of Afghanistan where aid workers have been continually targeted by Taliban fighters.
“Security is a great concern for us here in the south of the country, which clearly impacts our work,” Peter Drewniany, acting political affairs officer for UNAMA in Kandahar, said.
On 4 April, insurgents abducted two French and three Afghan health workers as they were heading to Kandahar city after visiting a camp for displaced people in the outskirts of the restive province that was once a Taliban stronghold.
Greatly affected by a prolonged drought and internecine conflicts, many people in the southern provinces of Afghanistan require humanitarian as well as development assistance.
A UN spokesman in Kabul said that despite the attack on Tuesday, the UN will continue working in southern Afghanistan.
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