UN removes some travel restrictions as ceasefire in northern Afghanistan holds

A ceasefire has been maintained in the northern province of Mazar-i-Sharif and areas west where factional fighting recently took place, the troops have been withdrawn and most of a 300-strong police contingent has arrived, the United Nations said in Afghanistan today.

"The situation in Mazar-i-Sharif and the areas to the west where recent fighting took place are reported to be calm with the agreements of 9 and 11 October holding," the spokesman for the UN Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said at a press briefing in the capital Kabul.

The troops from the Jamiat and Jumbesh factions have been withdrawn, "while armoured vehicles belonging to Jamiat and Jumbesh have been returned to Marmol and Shibergan, to their respective bases," spokesman Manoel de Almeida e Silva, said.

As a consequence, UNAMA had lifted its suspension of road travel from Mazar-i-Sharif in northern Balkh province to Maimana in Faryab province, on the border with Turkmenistan, and to other areas in the west, Mr. de Almeida e Silva said.

But "you know that there are areas in the southeast and in the south (where) our road movements are severely restricted and in certain cases we are not authorized to have any movements at all due to security concerns," he added.

One police vehicle broke down on its way to Mazar, but 278 of the 300 assigned police officers arrived yesterday and the rest were due to set out again from Mazar today, the spokesman said.

Two secondary schools, one in southern Zabul and one in central Uruzgan, would be rebuilt with good security by four local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and would provide for the education of girls, as well as boys, he said. "UN missions to these two provinces are currently suspended" because of security concerns, however.

He named the school-building NGOs as the Afghan Literacy Organization, Humanitarian Assistance for Afghanistan, the National Engineering Reconstruction Unit and the South-West Afghanistan Development Agency.