Aid vital to avoid warlords' return

AFGHANISTAN could slide back under the control of warlords if it fails to receive the aid it urgently needs, a top UN official said on Thursday.

Kenzo Oshima, UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, said $777m was needed to the end of this year to pay for food and shelter for returning refugees as well as items such as police and army salaries.

He was addressing a Geneva meeting of UN officials and representatives from 15 donor countries less than a week after vice-president Haji Abdul Qadir was shot dead after his first day’s work as public works minister.

Nigel Fisher, deputy to the UN special representative to Afghanistan, said: “Afghanistan is at a critical juncture in its transition and it is vital we continue to help it meet ongoing humanitarian needs and its efforts towards recovery.”

Despite a massive influx of 1.2 million Afghan refugees returning home from Pakistan and Iran, there has been a relative slowdown in donor assistance in most key sectors during the second quarter of 2002, a UN document said.

The UN appealed in February for $1.6bn for Afghanistan, emerging from decades of war compounded by several years of drought. The crisis has left almost one-third of the population dependent on emergency aid.