THURSDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2001
Kandahar off limits to food convoys: UN
KABUL: Aid agencies still cannot distribute food to hundreds of thousands of people in southern Afghanistan because main roads around Kandahar city remain unsafe, a United Nations spokeswoman said on Wednesday.
Stephanie Bunker said aid convoys could not deliver to an estimated 238,000 people in the south "who may be vulnerable and need food" because of marauding gunmen.
She told reporters that record amounts of food were now being distributed elsewhere in the country as winter sets in. But "Kandahar continues to remain inaccessible because of security concerns."
Bunker said UN agencies have received reports that taxes of $100 are being levied by gunmen manning major roads into the city, which is under the nominal control of provincial governor Gul Agha.
She said it was unclear if the levy was per person, per vehicle or per convoy.
In other parts of Afghanistan the World Food Program distributed a record 80,000 tonnes of food between December 1-25, Bunker said.
"The fact is some people need food for a month, some need food for three months and some people need food for six months," she said.
She did not specify if the gunmen around Kandahar are bandits or roaming Taliban fighters, but warned that the situation remained precarious as tens of thousands of Afghan refugees return from neighbouring Pakistan.
According to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), 31,000 people returned to Afghanistan via the Chaman border post in Pakistan this month.
Millions more remain in refugee camps in Iran and Pakistan and in Pakistani border cities such as Quetta.
An estimated four to five million Afghans have fled their homeland during a series of conflicts over the past 23 years. ( AFP )
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