Voicing the Secretary-General's strong concern about the edict, Mr. Vendrell asked that the Taliban not carry it out. He also warned that if the edict is implemented, it would provoke international outrage.

FAO's Foodcrops and Shortages found sub-Saharan Africa worst off with 16 countries suffering from exceptional food emergencies caused mostly by natural disasters and civil strife. Despite improved weather conditions recently, the report says, the effects of the drought in Eastern Africa are still being felt in Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Sudan and Tanzania, where emergency food assistance continues to be provided

The UN Co-ordinator for Afghanistan last week signed an agreement with the European Union for 3.8 million Euro for the Mine Action Programme for Afghanistan.

The Afghan Technical Consultants (ATC) will use its funds to clear 6,400,000 square metres of high priority mined and former battlefield areas in Ghazni, Kabul, Kandahar, and Logar, and Halo

The trucks carrying sugar, rice, clothes, blankets and shoes have been sent to the southern Afghan city of Kandahar which is also the Taliban militia's base, the fundamentalist Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) party spokesman Khalid Soomro said.

"These items have been donated by the people of Karachi in the party's one week campaign," Somroo said, adding that a JUI team will deliver the goods to the Taliban chief Mulla

He was shocked by what he saw, he said. The plight of tens of thousands of displaced persons, in camps in

• Weekly Update Afghanistan, 23 February
• North Caucasus Briefing, Update Activity

''We have no reports of any damage or casualties from the areas we control,'' Taliban spokesman Qari Fazle Rabbi told the private Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) agency.

The Islamic Taliban control more than 90 per cent territory of the country.

Opponents of the Islamic Taliban who control northern provinces of Takhar and Badakhshan which were worst-hit also did not report any damage.

In the past three years, the provinces

The humanitarian tragedy caused by the ongoing clashes has gained alarming proportions. Since last July, thousands of people have lost their lives, tens of thousands of people have been internally displaced mainly in northern Afghanistan, and some have sought refuge outside of the country due to the continuing clashes. The fact that hundreds of internally displaced people have lost their lives because of the cold weather is of utmost concern.

The severity of the humanitarian situation

1. An earthquake struck Badakhshan, north-eastern Afghanistan at 6:52 a.m. local time (0222 GMT) on 25 February 2001. The Swiss Seismological Centre and the United States Geological Survey computed a magnitude of 6.1 on the Richter Scale with a depth of 200 Km, for this earthquake. Other sources recorded a higher magnitude. The epicentre of the earthquake is located at latitude 36.4 N and longitude 70.9 E, approximately 70 Km south of Faizabad.

2. According