Un Launches $405 Million Aid Appeal For Afghanistan

The United Nations launched Wednesday a $405 million humanitarian assistance appeal for Afghanistan.



"We all wish to see a time when humanitarian assistance would no longer be needed," Mark Bowden, the UN humanitarian coordinator, said in Kabul at the launch of the appeal.



 "We must not allow Afghanistan to become forgotten emergencies," Bowden added.



The UN official said the dragging armed conflict killed 7,965 civilians during the first nine months of the current year, 20 percent of whom were children.



Also, an estimated 100,000 people were forced to flee their homes across the country.



Bowden said that around 1.2 million children in Afghanistan were acutely malnourished, half a million of whom were younger than five.



He said half-a-million children die each year of preventable disease, and already 4,000 families were facing the onset of winter without adequate housing.



Aid activists too have come under serious threats while delivering services in the war-ravaged country. The UN envoy said so far there had been 174 armed attacks on aid workers, which claimed the lives of 36 humanitarians.



Local experts said there must be coherence between the Afghan government and the donors.



Analyst Nizamuddin Katawazi said some donor-driven projects had not yielded desired results in the past.



"The Afghan government should propose projects rather than the donor community implementing its own programs," Katawazi suggested.



He said the Kabul government must also ensure transparency in the implementation of all such projects.



Also Wednesday, the Human Rights Watchdog urged foreign donors to press the new Afghan government to address the country's persistent human rights problems at a major upcoming international donor conference in London.



The human rights body made the demand in letters to representatives of more than a dozen donor countries.



The government representatives will be meeting between Dec. 3 and 4 at the London Conference on Afghanistan to affirm donor humanitarian and security commitments to the country.



www.aa.com.tr/en - Kabil