Reuters
November 5
he U.N. humanitarian agency UNICEF hopes to start aid deliveries to northern Afghanistan by river from the Central Asian state of Uzbekistan in the next week or so, a UNICEF official said on Monday.
Delivery of humanitarian aid has become a key issue with the U.S. military operations in Afghanistan and the onset of winter which is likely to leave many people trapped in mountainous regions.
"In a week, or maybe 10 days' time, we hope to make the first delivery by barge to Afghanistan. We are working towards that at the moment," a UNICEF official based in the Uzbek capital Tashkent told Reuters.
Last month, the Uzbek government said it would allow the United Nations to use the southern Termez river port to move aid to Afghanistan for the first time since 1998.
Uzbek Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Kamilov said last week that humanitarian aid arriving in Termez would be duly shipped to Afghanistan by barge, but that a number of "technical questions" were being discussed with the United Nations.
The Uzbek government has also agreed to open Termez airport to aid agencies to allow them to stockpile humanitarian cargoes.
UNICEF has already moved three humanitarian shipments destined for Afghanistan to warehouses in Termez. Two arrived by road after being flown into Tashkent and the third was flown directly to Termez from Copenhagen last week.
The UNICEF official said a fourth aid flight to Termez was due on Thursday, adding that last week's delivery was the first international flight to land in the airport for four years.
She said the aid included high-protein biscuits, water containers, boots, jackets and blankets.
BARGE ACROSS THE RIVER
Once UNICEF gets the go-ahead to deliver the shipments, the official said supplies would be loaded on to trucks and rolled down to the barges. They would then be shipped across the Amu Darya river and handed over to UNICEF on the Afghan side.
Aid officials said the opening of the Termez port would be particularly helpful, as it can handle large volumes and so should become a major supply route.
Uzbekistan has repeatedly said that for security reasons it will not open its border bridge to allow aid into Afghanistan.
The Friendship Bridge in Termez, around 60 km from the Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif, is the main border crossing between the two states, and was the route taken by the Soviet army when it withdrew in defeat from Afghanistan in 1989.
Mazar-i-Sharif is a large Taliban-held stronghold and is one of the major targets of the U.S. air strikes on Afghanistan.
Aid agencies say a renewed drive to get aid into Afghanistan before the onset of winter is their priority. The impoverished war-torn country is not only in the grip of a crippling drought, but snow could cut off supply routes particularly vital for people fleeing the conflict.
UNICEF is already delivering humanitarian supplies into Afghanistan via other neighbouring states, including Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Iran.
The United Nations, which fears up to 1.5 million Afghans could flee, has called for surrounding states - Pakistan, Iran, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan - to admit people trying to escape starvation and the U.S.-led bombing campaign.
Pakistan and Iran, which already host several million Afghan refugees, have officially closed their borders, but refugees are still reaching the countries. Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan have also closed their frontiers.