Afghanistan: UN helps broker truce between factions but new skirmish erupts

An Afghan peace committee with United Nations participation has managed to broker a ceasefire between rival factions in northern Afghanistan, but fresh fighting broke out between the two militias in another area last night and a new mediation mission is being planned, a UN spokesman said today.

A delegation of the Mazar Multi Party Security Commission accompanied by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) went to Dara-i-Suf in Samangan province on Sunday after fighting between the Jamiat and Jumbesh factions. While tensions remained high, the ceasefire was holding, spokesman Manoel de Almeida e Silva told a briefing in Kabul, the Afghan capital.

But new fighting broke out between the same factions in Sholgara district, Balkh Province, and the Security Commission was today sending a delegation that included UNAMA, to assess the situation there, he said.

On the humanitarian front, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) announced that it was boosting its support to Afghanistan’s education system through food aid. For the next two years, over two million school children would be targeted, in an effort to provide food assistance to encourage enrolment, attendance and school performance - especially for girls - at an estimated cost of $97 million, the agency said.