Afghan

Afghans returning home

UN agency concerned at lack of access to thousands of Afghans displaced by conflict

27 March 2007
The United Nations refugee agency today expressed concern at the recent displacement of Afghans due to the ongoing conflict in the southern provinces of Helmand and Kandahar, where nearly 5,000 families have been driven from their homes.
Afghans returning home

20,000 Afghan flood victims receive food and other emergency aid from UN agencies

26 March 2007
United Nations agencies are stepping up relief efforts for flood victims across Afghanistan, with assistance already on its way to nearly 4,000 families, or some 20,000 people.
Security Council

Security Council extends UN mission in Afghanistan

23 March 2007
The Security Council today extended the mandate of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) by another year, welcoming the mission’s recently expanded presence in the provinces and voicing concern at the harm caused by the production and trafficking of opium.
Tom Koenigs, SRSG in Afghanistan

UN envoy calls for greater international and internal efforts to stabilize Afghanistan

20 March 2007
The senior United Nations envoy to Afghanistan today called on both the international community and the war-torn country’s Government to increase efforts to promote reconstruction and bring lasting stability to the “place of hope and challenge.”

UNICEF gears up to boost Afghan education as new school year begins

19 March 2007
With more than 6 million Afghan children returning to school this week in grades 1 to 12, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has set itself a target of enrolling 400,000 more girls in basic education, providing learning materials to 5.4 million youngsters up to grade 9, and supplying teaching materials for over 100,000 teachers.

International community must help Afghanistan consolidate peace – UN report

19 March 2007
While progress has been made in Afghanistan in coordinating national and international efforts for development and countering the insurgency in the south, mounting violence from an emboldened insurgency, popular alienation and human rights issues put the country and its partners at “a critical juncture,” according to a new United Nations report.

Afghanistan: UN mission urges release of journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo and crew

17 March 2007
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) today joined a growing chorus of official calls for the release of journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo and his Afghan colleagues.
USG Guéhenno

Afghanistan: political, economic development must accompany military strategy – UN

12 March 2007
Military strategy has to be combined with political and development strategy in Afghanistan’s violence-torn south and south-eastern provinces, the top United Nations peacekeeping official said today.

UN rights expert urges immediate release of Italian journalist held in Afghanistan

12 March 2007
A United Nations human rights expert today issued a strong appeal for the release of Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo and his aides, who are reportedly being held captive by the Taliban in Afghanistan.

After record Afghan crop in 2006, opium production could rise yet again, UN reports

5 March 2007
Opium production in Afghanistan, a $3-billion-a-year trade accounting for more than 90 per cent of the world’s illegal output, could rise again this year after a nearly 60 per cent increase in 2006, due to the ousted Taliban using the trade in the raw material for heroin to fund their war, according to a new United Nations survey released today.