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6 million Afghans face alarming humanitarian situation, UN warns

6 million Afghans face alarming humanitarian situation, UN warns

Up to 6 million vulnerable people in Afghanistan who depend on outside aid to survive face a deteriorating situation, as United Nations relief flights are indefinitely suspended and international aid workers have left the country, UN officials warned today.

Despite strenuous UN efforts to shore up the relief effort in the country, "the reality is that the humanitarian assistance programme is already at a dangerously low ebb," spokesperson Stephanie Bunker told reporters in Islamabad. "Millions of people will face serious shortages of food and water and other supplies within Afghanistan if we cannot deliver relief assistance," she warned.

Pre-famine conditions are likely to worsen, according to Ms. Bunker, who pointed out that an expected drop in temperatures could exacerbate the already dire situation. "Winter is expected to come as early as November this year and may potentially be severe," she said. "This will have implications for vulnerable civilians, as well as aid delivery."

The UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, Kenzo Oshima, has mobilized UN country teams in Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Iran and Tajikistan, together with the Islamabad-based Afghanistan country team, to prepare regional contingency and preparedness plans under the direction of the UN Coordinator for Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) today reported that since the terrorist attacks against the United States last week, some 15,000 Afghans have fled to Pakistan.

In a humanitarian update released in Geneva, UNHCR said that up to 10,000 Afghans crossed into Pakistan in the days immediately following the 11 September terrorist attacks against the United States. Another group of 5,000 Afghans are encamped just inside Pakistan at the Charman crossing point.

"UNHCR is in talks with Pakistan's Government on whether this group can be integrated into existing camps where shelter and water supplies are readily available, or whether the authorities will insist that new camps be established to shelter new arrivals - a time-consuming and expensive exercise," the agency said. UNHCR, which has dispatched additional staff to Pakistan, is supplying the area with thousands of tents, blankets, jerry cans and kitchen sets.

Inside Afghanistan, relief workers estimate that more than half the population of Kandahar has left, while people are also headed out of the western city of Herat.

UN agencies have requested a total of $332.6 million to fund this year's relief effort in Afghanistan. As of 10 September less than half that amount - $144.9 million - had been contributed.