Afghan

Koïchiro Matsuura

Afghanistan: UNESCO chief ‘horrified’ at suicide bombings, targeting of media

2 August 2006
With violence escalating in Afghanistan, the head of the United Nations cultural agency today condemned a suicide bomb attack in Kandahar that killed a television cameraman and several other civilians, saying he was “particularly horrified” as the bombers had waited for a crowd to gather to inflict maximum suffering.
Antonio M. Costa

Fighting to curb drugs from Afghanistan, UN agency to help train officers in Central Asia

27 July 2006
In the battle against the heroin trade from Afghanistan, which produces almost all the world’s supply, the United Nations drug agency is joining an international effort to train Afghan and Central Asian enforcement officers, as around one fifth of the total output of the illicit narcotic is smuggled through these neighbouring five republics to Russia and elsewhere in Europe.
Council President de La Sablière

Afghanistan: Security Council voices fear on violence as UN envoy talks of insurgency

26 July 2006
Expressing concern over the worsening violence in Afghanistan, the Security Council today reaffirmed its support for the Government and the armed forces as they battle what the top United Nations envoy to the impoverished nation called an “insurgency” that seeks to restore life under the Taliban.

Drought in Afghanistan prompts UN appeal for $76 million

25 July 2006
Warning that more than 2.5 million people are facing food shortages if they do not receive assistance, the United Nations and the Afghan Government today launched a joint appeal for $76 million to deal with the country’s emerging drought.

More Afghan professionals returning home, UN refugee agency reports

11 July 2006
While the number of Afghans returning home from Pakistan this year has declined, with 100,000 crossing the border so far, their composition shows an increase in those with professional skills such as engineering, medicine and education, the United Nations refugee agency reported today.
Tom Koenigs, SRSG in Afghanistan

Afghanistan: top UN official ‘appalled’ by bombings in capital

5 July 2006
The top United Nations envoy in Afghanistan today expressed his horror at the rash of explosions over the past two days near to or apparently directed against government institutions or personnel in Kabul, the capital.

Afghanistan: UN food agency renews appeal to fill critical funding shortfall

3 July 2006
Facing a shortfall of more than a third in requested aid for Afghanistan, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has renewed its urgent appeal to donors to come up with “critical” additional funding to finance its activities for the rest of the year.
Antonio M. Costa

UN anti-narcotics chief calls for wide-spectrum action against Afghan opium production

28 June 2006
Afghanistan, the world’s largest opium producer, is already a “narco-economy” and risks becoming a “narco-state,” with drug production its largest employer, the top United Nations drugs and crime fighter warned today.
Footballs donated to children by UNAMA staff

Catching World Cup soccer fever, UN gives footballs to Afghanistan’s aspiring stars

21 June 2006
While the world’s top soccer players duel it out on the manicured playing fields of Germany in football’s World Cup, aspiring stars in Afghanistan are honing their skill on the dirt pitches of the violence-wracked country thanks to hundreds of footballs donated by staff of the United Nations mission there.

Afghanistan: UN calls on national, international forces to avert civilian casualties

19 June 2006
With operations going on in southern Afghanistan, the United Nations mission in the country called on both national and international security forces to exercise caution to prevent civilian casualties.