UNITED NATIONS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 13th July, 2021) The United Nations and humanitarian partners continue to work in Afghanistan, but the ongoing military hostilities interrupt their activities and the delivery of aid, UN Deputy Special Representative Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Afghanistan Ramiz Alakbarov told Sputnik on Tuesday.
"We continue our work in Afghanistan, but military action does not help to ensure uninterrupted delivery of supplies and smooth operations," Alakbarov said. "Nevertheless, international NGOs and the United Nations continue to be present in Afghanistan and provide humanitarian assistance practically throughout the entire territory of the country."
Alakbarov said humanitarian agencies in the Islamic Republic have seen the deterioration of access and worsened security situation due to the mining of territories and the increased incidence of attack on aid workers.
"In the first half of 2021, 25 humanitarian workers were killed, 63 were injured and 83 were arrested," Alakbarov said. "In the first six months, we had 1,120 incidents related to humanitarian access, while in 2020, there were only 1,095 such incidents. In June alone, we had 259 such incidents."
The UN official attributed the worsening of the security environment for humanitarian actors in Afghanistan to the US troops' withdrawal, among other reasons.
Afghanistan is seeing a spike in violence from the Taliban (banned in Russia) as international troops are gradually being withdrawn from the country. The troop pullout was one of the points of agreement the Taliban and the United States reached in Doha in February of last year. In early July, the Pentagon said that the US had withdrawn over 90% of the US military personnel and equipment from Afghanistan.
