Aid starts to return to Afghanistan
Vital food convoys from Pakistan to Afghanistan, suspended last week because of security fears, have restarted, a UN aid official said today.
Christiane Berthiaume of the World Food Programme said the agency’s Pakistani drivers had agreed to resume convoys to Kabul and Jalalabad, both in eastern Afghanistan.
But no trucks were expected to travel to southern Afghanistan because ‘‘security conditions are unfavourable,’’ she said.
Security problems were also making it difficult to distribute aid from cities to millions of needy people countrywide ahead of the harsh Afghan winter, she said.
The World Food Programme - which supplies more than 90% of Afghanistan’s food aid - suspended convoys from Pakistan last Wednesday.
Drivers from Pakistan feared running into retreating Taliban forces or Northern Alliance soldiers and ‘‘we trust their judgment,’’ said Berthiaume.
The UN refugee agency said today it expected large numbers of Afghan refugees in neighbouring countries to go home early next year.
‘‘We hope that with the return of peace and stability in Afghanistan a sizable number of people will return,’’ said Ron Redmond, spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
There are four million Afghan refugees abroad, mainly in Pakistan and Iran. Most fled two decades of war and years of drought. Thousands more crossed in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, even though the borders were officially closed.
Several thousand refugees have already returned of their own accord, said Redmond.
‘‘Security allowing, organised, large-scale movements are likely to begin in early spring,’’ he added.
