Humanitarian triage, warns United Nations Afghanistan

Islamabad (Office of the United Nations Co-ordinator for Afghanistan), 2 March 2001-- Recent information from northern Afghanistan indicates deterioration in the condition of displaced persons in the area, where people have been displaced by both drought and conflict. So far, there are reports of some 117,000 persons displaced in all provinces of Northern Region. However, in most areas, including the provinces of Faryab, Jowzjan, Balkh, Samangan, and Saripul independent assessments have been limited.
Recent assessment of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in various small camps and settlements in Kunduz and Baghlan Provinces by UNOCHA, UNHCR, UNICEF and WHO have found that following recent snow and cold in the area, over 200 people among the 23,000 displaced persons in 16 camps in Baghlan died. Most deaths were of children under five years old, of women who died during childbirth, and of old men. Most families gave hunger and exposure to cold weather as the main reasons of the death.

Local authorities have tried to accommodate the displaced in abandoned public buildings since their arrival last October/November. Late arrivals had to take shelter in makeshift camps. Most of these shelters are not fit for human habitation, exposing people to hazards associated with over crowding, poor sanitation, disease, and cold. Moreover, few camps have any access to safe water.

In Kunduz there are still almost 27,000 people spread out in at least 30 "camps" and villages. So far, assessments of one-third of the displaced population have indicated that 60 out of 8,000 people have died, in most cases with families quoting hunger and cold conditions as the causes.

Because of repeated conflicts, with shifting front lines, the aid community has faced a complex situation in which regular assessment and monitoring have not been possible. As in Baghlan, the aid community discouraged establishment of large centralised IDP camps and encouraged IDPs to stay where they were, hosted by local families and/or living in abandoned but destroyed mud shelters. This lack of concentration of the vulnerable has presented a challenge to the humanitarian community for assistance to scattered IDP camps/locations, especially for assessment, registration, organisation, and logistics. Many families who have not been assessed are hosted by the locals or by relatives, who have used up their food stocks. In an economically depressed situation where there is little work available, the food situation is alarming.

Given the lack of comprehensive information in the northern provinces, the number of deaths recently disclosed by missions to Baghlan, Kunduz, and Balkh may be only the tip of the iceberg.

While UN agencies and NGOs have been responding to this crisis, assistance has been uneven. Unless aid agencies are strengthened in the north with increased staff and resources, the situation of this large but invisible and scattered population of displaced persons will not improve. Moreover, resumption of fighting in the north, which could happen at any time, should be expected to increase displacement, and possibly further displace those already displaced.

In addition to the displaced in northern Afghanistan, the aid community is concerned about the situation of hundreds of thousands of non-displaced rural people including poor farmers and the landless, who may not have enough to survive up to the next harvest.

As the aid community has repeatedly warned, the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan is in a sharp downwards spiral that will continue until at least next summer. The capacity of the assistance community to ameliorate the situation is limited, and will be even more restricted if necessary resources are not forthcoming. Even with additional resources, assistance agencies in Afghanistan may have to engage in humanitarian triage while attempting to save as many lives as possible.

For further information please contact: Stephanie Bunker, Office of the United Nations Co-ordinator for Afghanistan, 92 51 2211451 x 415; mobile 0320 261325