UN again suspends mine clearance in parts of Afghanistan

The United Nations has again suspended mine clearance along parts of one of Afghanistan’s most important routes for commerce and relief aid after new attacks and threats to de-mining teams on the road between the capital, Kabul, and the southern city of Kandahar.

“Demining teams remain in the area but have, for the moment, stopped the demining work until security is reassessed and measures are in place to guarantee security,” the spokesman for the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), Manoel de Almeida e Silva, said in Kabul today.

He said the decision taken by the UN Mine Action Centre for Afghanistan, followed several incidents, although no one had been injured.

In one incident, on 26 May in Rooza village, 12 bullets were fired at a survey team from the Mind Dog Centre (MDC) and the Mine Clearance Planning Agency (MCPA). Three gunmen on motorcycles threatened an MDC team which was working at Sultan Khail village at Saydabad. Other teams have been threatened and told to leave the area or they would be killed, Mr. de Almeida e Silva said.

“We understand that there was a demonstration in Zabul province that involved about a thousand people calling on deminers to return to work and supporting them,” he added.

Mine clearance on stretches of the road was already suspended at the beginning of May after attacks in which a driver was killed and three people wounded.

On another front, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) expressed serious concern over the lack of new funding commitments for long-term agricultural development projects in Afghanistan.

“Without the additional amount of $25 million, we will have to stop more than 70 per cent of our activities by the end of this year,” said Manfred Staab, FAO Programme Manager for Afghanistan. “This would have serious repercussions on the farming communities we are now helping and would prevent us from assisting more farmers.”

Long-term projects include seed production, the cultivation and marketing of fruits and vegetables, livestock vaccination campaigns and veterinary services, the rehabilitation of destroyed irrigation systems and the strengthening of fragile government services over the next years.