International Community in
Afghanistan continues....

Once the U.S. military action began, hundreds of thousands more Afghans fled their homes, including an estimated 40 to 70 percent of the residents of Afghanistan’s larger cities. In early November, at the height of the United States’ and Afghan opposition forces’ military campaign in northern Afghanistan, some 500,000 displaced people were in the area around Mazar-e-Sharif, the largest city in the region. Although Pakistan kept its border closed, about 160,000 Afghans managed to enter Pakistan between September 11 and the end of the year. Most bribed smugglers to take them into the country over remote mountain passes.

However, Pakistani authorities in Baluchistan permitted several thousand Afghans, mostly vulnerable people, to enter. Newly arrived Afghan refugees whom USCR interviewed in Pakistan in late November said that they had fled primarily because of the U.S. bombing; several said that the aerial attacks had claimed the lives of family members. In order to prevent thousands of Afghans from entering Iran, the Iranian authorities, with the help of the Iranian Red Crescent, established two camps just inside the Afghan border. Some 11,000 Afghans took refuge at the two camps, Makaki and Mile-46, where conditions were said to be grossly inadequate. Armed elements were reportedly present in the camps, and fighting between Taleban and opposition supporters broke out in Makaki in November, as Taleban control collapsed in western Afghanistan. The start of the U.S. military campaign complicated relief efforts.

Some truck drivers refused to deliver aid goods, fearing the U.S. bombing, increased fighting between Taleban and opposition forces, and the looting and lawlessness that spread as the Taleban’s hold on power weakened.

Nevertheless, the WFP continued to try to deliver additional food into the country before the onset of winter, while many local relief staff continued their organizations’ operations even under extreme and uncertain conditions. Relief efforts were further hampered by the Taleban’s seizure of two UN food warehouses, looting by Taleban and armed gangs, and the United States’ reportedly accidental bombing, twice, of ICRC food warehouse.

To be continued...