A consequence of the instability in Afghanistan - attacks against aid agencies
With his recent visit, Barack Obama has focused attention on the Bush administration's bungling of the mission in Afghanistan and on the increasingly dire situation there. IRIN reports on another aspect of the Afghanistan problem:
The increasing number of attacks on aid agencies is reducing their ability to deliver life-saving assistance to vulnerable communities; the consequences are "serious" and could lead to a "humanitarian crisis", aid workers have warned.
The warning comes as millions have been affected by severe drought and high food prices, and are in need of urgent humanitarian aid. Aid agencies said a substantial response was urgently needed....Concerns about NGOs' security rose after two French aid workers working for Action contre la Faim (ACF), a French NGO, were abducted by unidentified gunmen in Nili, the capital of Daykundi Province in central Afghanistan, on 18 July.
ACF has temporarily suspended its operations across the country for security reasons, the organisation said in a statement. Up to 130,000 people who were facing risks of acute malnutrition benefited from ACF's relief operations in 2007, it said.
There are no available data on the number of people employed by local and international NGOs in Afghanistan, but it is believed thousands of Afghans and hundreds of international staff are thus engaged.
