Action by Churches Together (ACT)
Afghanistan
Geneva, October 9, 2001


No dramatic increase in refugee numbers, but food shortages in Afghanistan
of major concern

The influx of refugees from Afghanistan into Pakistan has not risen
dramatically since the first air strikes were launched on Sunday, ACT
members Church World Service (CWS) and Norwegian Church Aid (NCA) report.

The border to Pakistan is still closed. According to CWS, no huge numbers
of refugees are gathering at the border near Quetta. Reports are that more
people had gathered there before the air strikes and that many had
returned home since.

Although the border is officially closed, hundreds of refugees are
crossing illegally in the Peshawar area every day. However, this figure
does not vary much from those of the last weeks, as the local partners of
NCA point out.  Representatives of ACT Afghan partners explained that
people were afraid to move once the strikes started. People also seemed to
be hesitant to leave for Pakistan, knowing that the border is closed and
that they could possibly get stuck there and have to stay in the open air.
Many people are reported as not seeing the need to move at the moment, as
the strikes have turned out to be focussed on military targets.

A staff member of NCA who was concerned for the safety of his family in
Kabul was relieved to hear his father say on the telephone, "I am safe in
Kabul".

"Life in Kabul is normal. Buses are operating between the cities", said an
Afghan man who returned to Peshawar yesterday from a two-day visit to
Kabul.  "It was very frightening during the bombing, because I was near
the airport which was hit", he added. His impression of the mood of the
people was that most were reasonably calm. "Before the strikes, they were
much more frightened". Most people who enter the country stay with
relatives in Pakistan and do not go to the camps.

The situation in Afghanistan is of great concern to ACT members. After the
September 11 attacks in the US, many people fled from cities to rural
areas adding to the number of those who have already been internally
displaced by drought and civil war. ACT members say that thousands of
internally displaced persons (IDPs) are in urgent need of food and
shelter. ACT members are preparing for the distribution of food provided
by the United Nations World Food program (WFP), before the start of
winter. Part of the plan is to add more food to the 120, 000 metric tons
of wheat provided by WFP. This will include oil, rice and sugar to help
the most needy. After halting its activities briefly after the military
attacks, WFP announced that it had started operating again in Afghanistan.

ACT members NCA, Caid and CWS are all to distribute the food through their
local partners in Afghanistan. The plan is to transport the food to
central points in the country. The NGOs will then be responsible for the
distribution of food at district level.

In Peshawar, an NCA representative stressed that it is crucial that the
people in Afghanistan are supported, to prevent them from becoming
refugees within their own country. "Of special concern are the people
living in remote mountainous areas of the country," he said.

Already more than two million people in Afghanistan are living with acute
or high food shortages according to a survey by WFP. People who live in
the north of the country, an area where it is crucial that adequate food
supplies are in place before the start of winter, are especially
vulnerable. Timing is everything and the relief action is under enormous
pressure, as the country essentially becomes cut off after November 15.

The ACT Coordinating Office will issue a revision of the original appeal,
ASAF11 on Friday, October 12, 2001.


For further information please contact:
ACT Communications Officer Callie Long (mobile/cell phone +41 79 358 3171)
or
ACT Press Officer Rainer Lang (mobile/cell phone + 41 79 681 1868).


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Action by Churches Together (ACT) is a worldwide alliance of churches and
their related agencies, meeting human need through co-ordinated emergency
response.  The ACT Coordinating Office is based with the World Council of
Churches (WCC) and the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) in Switzerland.
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