Afghanistan Weekly Situation Report 13 - 19 Nov 2003

I. SITUATION UPDATE
On 16 November a UNHCR international staff member was shot and her driver wounded, while driving through the bazaar in Ghazni city. The assailants were apprehended by the local population and are under arrest. Operations in the south, southeast and east have been temporarily suspended. Most of the UN and other international organizations have temporarily withdrawn their international staff and reduced national staff presence. Road missions to and from Kabul/Ghazni, Kabul/ Gardez and Kabul/Jalal Abad are suspended. The UN Security Team furthermore decided to postpone external missions coming to Afghanistan.

In the east, the security situation continued to be unsettled. United Nations missions to Kunar and Nuristan provinces remained suspended, as well as missions to Chaparhar district, Nangarhar province. Missions to Laghman province were temporarily suspended due to factional fighting.

The security situation in the north remained calm although localized tensions continued in Chemtal district, Balkh province and Kohistanat, Sari Pul province. UN mission to these areas were suspended.

The situation in the northeast and west was calm.

II. PROGRAMME UPDATE

During the reporting period, 838,999 beneficiaries received 5,767 MT of food, as indicated below¹:

(Note: Beneficiaries in the table do not necessarily mean new beneficiaries. They may have been included in previous reports. Food distributed per beneficiary under different activities may vary, due to variation in rations in different projects. Information here is based on reports received from implementing partners.)

Respectively, 82 percent, 89 percent and 94 percent of the planned food was prepositioned in areas expected to become inaccessible in the north, northeast and central highlands.

Due to heavy snowfall, a WFP mission was not able to reach Balkhab district, Sari Pul province. Distributions in Rai Do Ab district, Samangan province, were hampered by snowfall as well, and are postponed. Due to heavy snowfall, the road from Fayz Abad to Shighnan and Ragh districts in Badakhshan province was closed. Roads leading to areas in Baghlan province, including Khost Wa Ferring district, were closed due to snow, floods and landslides. Food deliveries are postponed until the road opens. Snow also fell in Bamyan province. The road from Kabul to Bamyan, through Parwan province, remains open.

III. LOGISTICS UPDATE

1. IN-COUNTRY FOOD STOCK BALANCE³

2. LOGISTICS ISSUES

4,863 MT of food commodities were dispatched from external logistics hubs to extended delivery points inside Afghanistan, including:

• 700 MT of wheat, 131 MT of vegetable oil and 22 MT of pulses from Peshawar to Kabul;
• 150 MT of vegetable oil, 102 MT of wheat flour and 144 MT of wheat from Peshawar to Jalal Abad;
• 903 MT of wheat, 257 MT of wheat flour, 90 MT of wheat soya blend (WSB), 11 MT of sugar and 222 MT of pulses and 146 MT of rice from Quetta to Kandahar;
• 799 MT of wheat from Quetta to Peshawar;
• 901 MT of wheat from Termez to Mazari Sharif;
• 284 MT of wheat from Kurghan Tyube in Tajikistan to Kunduz.

1,545 MT of US donated vegetable oil was dispatched from Port Qasim, Karachi, to Peshawar.

WFP handed over the logistics base in Chagcharan, Ghor province to the Ministry of Public Works / UNOPS. The base and equipment will be used for rehabilitation activities, including snow clearing.

At a coordination meeting held on 13 November in Bamyan, snow clearance programmes were discussed. Solidarities received funding from ECHO to clean the snow on the following passes and roads:

• Shibar pass from Parwan side up to the top.
• Hajigak pass (both sides)
• Aqrabat pass
• Jalat pass
• Bamian-Yakawlang road

MADERA will clean Onay pass between Behsoud and Jalrez districts, Wardak province. MESP will clean

Sadbarg pass between Yakawlang and Lahl districts.

IV. OTHER SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

COLLABORATION WITH GOVERNMENT, NGOs and OTHER UN AGENCIES

The installation of ARGOS devices continued: six ARGOS devices were installed in three districts in Hirat and Farah provinces. 20 ARGOS devices were installed in 8 districts of Balkh, Jawzjan and Faryab provinces.

Mazar Area Office conducted a deworming survey in Mazari Sharif city, and Sheberghan district, Jawzjan province. The team interviewed 13 students/parents in Mazar and 23 students/parents in Sheberghan. Six WFP bakery surveyors of Kabul Area Office were trained in conducting deworming campaign surveys.

WFP Fayz Abad signed an agreement with the Department of Education and a local NGO to construct two schools in Badakhshan province.

WFP Kabul will open two new bakeries in Kabul city. WFP Jalal Abad will open one new bakery, which targets 250 vulnerable urban households.

WFP Kabul approved a school feeding project for 14 vocational training schools set up by the Ministry of Frontier and Tribal Affairs for Kuchi's.

Footnotes

¹ Please note that:

- Fayz Abad refers to the WFP Fayz Abad Area Office, which includes the sub-office in Kunduz and the provinces of Badakhshan, Baghlan, Takhar and Kunduz.

- Mazari Sharif refers to the WFP Mazari Sharif Area Office, which includes the sub-office in Maymana and the provinces of Jawzjan, Balkh, Samangan, Sari Pul and Faryab.

- Kabul refers to the WFP Kabul Area Office, which includes the sub-offices in Jalal Abad and Bamyan and the provinces of Bamyan, Parwan, Wardak, Kapisa, Nuristan, Kunar, Laghman, Nangarhar, Kabul, Logar, Paktya, Khost, Paktika and Ghazni.

- Kandahar refers to the WFP Kandahar Area Office, which includes the provinces of Uruzgan, Zabul, Kandahar, Hilmand, and Nimroz.

- Hirat refers to the WFP Hirat Area Office, which includes the sub-office in Qalay-I-Naw and the provinces of Badghis, Ghor, Farah, Hirat.

² Food for education includes the following activities: school feeding, food for teachers, food for training and food for teacher training.

³ Data is based on reports from WFP area offices. It does not include food stocks in regional logistics hubs.