Afghanistan: Humanitarian Access Snapshot (October 2024)

In October 2024, humanitarian partners reported 104[1] incidents that impeded humanitarian operations, resulting in the temporary suspension of 34 Projects. These incidents were mostly (93 per cent) authored by the De-facto Authorities (DfAs). Of the incidents reported in October, Southern, Central, and Western regions were the most affected by the access challenges, respectively. The incidents in October have shown a notable decline of 40 per cent from the previous month [2] and 32 per cent from the same time last year. This decline, however, should not be automatically interpreted as a significant improvement in the access environment as underreporting has been observed during this period.

In October, 79 per cent of the reported access incidents stemmed from the DfA interfering with the implementation of humanitarian activities. Among these impediments are interference with programming (29 incidents), followed request for staff list and sensitive data (19 incidents), interference with staff recruitment (11 incidents), Women (prevention of the use of services/assistance) ( 7 incidents), pressure to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) (6 incidents), dress code (3 incidents), interference with procurement (3 incidents), and interference or attempted interference into beneficiary selection (3 incidents) have been recorded.

In 2024, 129 incidents of interference by the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (PVPV) were recorded, directly impacting humanitarian operations. Notably, 70 of these incidents occurred following the Publication of the Morality Law on August 21, 2024. The highest number of incidents were recorded in the Southeastern (30 incidents), followed by the Southern (24) region, Northern (19) and Western (17). These incidents include monitoring visits to offices/facilities checking adherence to the PVPV law, detention of staff members, social and behavior codes, separation of workspace, male and female staff stopped at checkpoints, and mahram, requesting sensitive information, dress code requirements and threats to female staff members.

In October, **9 directives were issued nationally and across various regions**, directly impacting the humanitarian response in Afghanistan. Most of the directives were mainly issued to enforce the existing procedures. The authorities behind these directives include the Directorate of Economy (3 directives), the Directorate of Public Health (3 directives), the Directorate of Foreign Affairs (1 directive), the Provincial Governor (1 Directive), and the Directorate of Finance (1 directive).

In October, 21 gender-related incidents were reported. These incidents (ranging from bottlenecks with restricting women staff participation in the distribution site, restricting women beneficiaries from accessing the distribution site, and restricting women from participating in the assessment and preventing women staff from entering the NGO/UN offices) have also resulted in the temporal suspension of 14 humanitarian projects and the temporary closure of facilities in October alone.

The humanitarian response in October was affected by incidents of violence targeting humanitarian personnel. These incidents led to the arrest and detention of 13 staff members, including two women staff. All detained personnel were subsequently released within a period of two to six days. These incidents have continued to impact the operational environment, where a risk is posed to the safety and security of humanitarian staff.

Furthermore, movement restrictions within the country have posed an access constraint to the humanitarian response delivery, with 11 incidents reported in October, including incidents at the road closure (4 incidents), Mahram required for the movement of female staff (3 incidents), point of entry (2 incidents), imposition of armed escorts (1 incident) and one incident at a checkpoint.

[1] The access incidents are reported to the Access Monitoring and Reporting Framework (AMRF) directly by humanitarian partners to OCHA or through the cluster coordinators, working group, and DSS. [2] The incidents referenced as ‘the previous month’ include late reporting, which impacts the percentage comparisons. Accordingly, the incidents reported are expected to increase in the coming months.