Addressing a conference on the reconstruction of Afghanistan held today in Washington, D.C., a senior United Nations official said the country's long-term recovery effort would cost billions of dollars.
Amid improved security, more United Nations international relief staff are returning to Afghanistan to join their local counterparts in assisting millions of people in the war-ravaged and drought-stricken country, UN officials said today.
The top United Nations development official, who has been just named by Secretary-General Kofi Annan to lead the early recovery effort in Afghanistan, pledged today to take quick action in responding to the challenges facing the country.
The United Nations food agency today said that despite numerous obstacles, it had succeeded in reaching a monthly food aid target of 52,000 metric tonnes - enough supplies to feed the 6 million hungry people of Afghanistan devastated by war and drought.
A senior United Nations humanitarian official today expressed cautious optimism about the Organization's ability to distribute relief supplies in Afghanistan, where rapidly evolving conditions seem to favour the aid effort while insecurity remains a pressing concern.
Security conditions in Afghanistan have improved enough for the United Nations to begin sending aid workers back into the country to bolster the ongoing relief effort, UN officials in Islamabad said today.
Utilizing a new supply route, the United Nations today dispatched the first barge load of relief supplies destined for the beleaguered people of Afghanistan through the Termez River crossing in Uzbekistan.
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today launched the first major relief operation in decades to the Nuba Mountains of the Sudan, to urgently feed a total of 158,000 people impoverished and displaced by war.
With the situation on the ground in Afghanistan changing rapidly, United Nations officials today called for both sides in the conflict to respect international humanitarian and human rights law.
Afghanistan’s already calamitous humanitarian situation could degenerate if law and order is further disrupted in the country, the United Nations warned today.
