U.S. AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
BUREAU FOR DEMOCRACY, CONFLICT, AND HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE (DCHA)
OFFICE OF U.S. FOREIGN DISASTER ASSISTANCE (OFDA)
CENTRAL ASIA TASK FORCE
CENTRAL ASIA REGION - Complex Emergency
Fact Sheet #43, Fiscal Year (FY) 2002	January 14, 2002


Note: This Fact Sheet updates previously released Central Asia Region Fact
Sheets and Situation Reports. This is the final Central Asia Region Fact
Sheet.  USAID/OFDA will continue to publish weekly Central Asia Region
Situation Repots.

Numbers Affected

- According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), 7.5 million Afghans are in urgent need of
humanitarian assistance including food, shelter, health, education, or
demining initiatives.


Relief Activities

- The UN World Food Program (WFP) reported on January 11 that the
increased dispatches during December positioned adequate food aid inside
Afghanistan to meet the three-month requirements in areas inaccessible
during the winter.  Stocks at the regional WFP hubs are increasing and
in-country stocks are satisfactory.  Non- cereal items (mostly beans and
cooking oil) are arriving at all hubs for onward dispatch to meet
requirements for complementary (non-cereal) foods.

- In January, WFP expects to move approximately 147,000 metric tons (MT)
of food of all commodity types into Afghanistan.

- In Hirat, WFP (in conjunction with implementing partner World Vision
International) is continuing its citywide food distribution, reaching an
average of between 32,000 and 39,000 people per day.  To date, the
distribution has proceeded without incident.  As of January 13, WFP had
distributed approximately 1,100 MT of food.

- The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) reports that 600,000 doses of measles
vaccine and syringes were delivered recently to northern Afghanistan, and
the measles immunization campaign is ready to begin in Kunduz and Takhar.
Training of vaccination teams took place last week.

- The World Health Organization (WHO) reported last week an average of 40
to 60 deaths per week in Maslakh camp for internally displaced persons
(IDPs) south of Hirat.  WHO cited figures from a typical week, from
December 29 - January 4, in which a total of 42 people died in the camp.
The principal causes of death were acute respiratory diseases.  To
maintain more accurate figures on the number of deaths at the camp, WHO
has hired monitors.

- On January 14, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) began
loading 1,500 MT of seed in Lahore for its emergency wheat seed
distribution project targeting the northwest of Afghanistan.  FAO will
transport the seed to three implementing partners, Save the Children/US,
ACTED, and Cooperation for Humanitarian Assistance (CHA).


Security

- Kabul remains relatively calm.  The Afghanistan Defense Ministry
reported on January 14 that it would keep 1,500 troops positioned in the
capital.  These troops will be confined to bases around the city and not
allowed to patrol the streets with their weapons.  The troops will
reportedly remain due to the lack of police officers and the growing
concern over rising crime in Kabul.

- Despite insecurity in Kandahar, WFP today sent an international staff
member to Kandahar for the first time since last September.

- The road from Kandahar to Hirat remains insecure, although humanitarian
transports are managing to travel the route.  According to the UN Regional
Security Officer, the road from Mazar-e-Sharif to Hirat is secure for
travel.


Population Movements

- The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reports that over the
January 12-13 weekend, the number of Afghans massed at the Chaman border
post rose sharply from 7,500 to 13,000.  According to UNHCR, the refugees
are in urgent need of assistance, including medical assistance and
adequate shelter to cope with sub- zero temperatures at night.  To avert a
humanitarian disaster, UNHCR is urging the Pakistani authorities to allow
UNHCR to move vulnerable people to refugee camps where they can be better
assisted.  UNHCR continues to provide high protein biscuits, dates, water,
and blankets to this population.

- According to USAID/OFDA implementing partner Mercy Corps International
(MCI), the livestock die-out in the southern region has apparently
worsened over the past three months.  Many families were, however, unable
to move until now to seek assistance due to the ongoing conflict.  Many of
these families are now in the Spin Boldak/Chaman area, the only
substantial point for the delivery of aid in the region.  This is a
principal reason for the recent flow of IDPs to Chaman and Killi Faizo.

- Both in North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and Balochistan Province in
Pakistan, UNHCR is continuing to transfer Afghan refugees to new camps.
In the last three days, UNHCR relocated more than 3,000 refugees from
Jalozai to the new Shalman and Kotkai camps in the tribal areas.  Today,
UNHCR moved 394 Uzbeks to the new Latifabad refugee camp.  UNHCR will
resume the recently suspended relocation of Afghan refugees to Old Bagzai
refugee camp in Kurram agency following a recent security assessment to
the area.  Since mid- November, UNHCR has moved more than 118,000 Afghans
to new refugee camps in NWFP and Balochistan.

- There was a four-day rain in Afghanistan last week, the first such
downpour in three years.  However, as reported by UNHCR, by January 12,
many of the tents and mud huts in displaced persons camps in the Hirat
area flooded or collapsed under the heavy rain.  At least one death has
been reported due to a collapsing roof in Shaidaye camp, 20 kilometers
east of Hirat.  On January 12, aid agencies in Hirat rushed to provide
additional shelter items for the IDP camps.  UNHCR immediately provided
additional tents, blankets, plastic sheeting, and shovels for IDPs in the
Hirat area.

- There are an estimated 300,000 IDPs in six camps in and around Hirat.
The majority are farmers from Ghor and Badghis provinces, who fled their
homes due to severe drought.  Many expressed the wish to return home
following the recent rain.

- UNHCR has begun planning with other agencies to assist the eventual
return of these drought-affected people in western Afghanistan, who will
require extensive support to rebuild their home communities.  UNHCR is
also preparing for the voluntary repatriation and resettlement of an
anticipated one million Afghan refugees from Iran and Pakistan in the
spring, contingent upon security continuing to improve.


Logistics

- Today, the Salang Tunnel opened to limited truck traffic.  USAID/OFDA
implementing partner ACTED has been working in collaboration with the
Ministry of Public Works, Halo Trust, and Russian EMERCOM on efforts to
clear debris from the tunnel.  Traffic will remain limited on the
2.6-kilometer long tunnel.  Even this limited reopening will speed the
flow of commercial and humanitarian goods from Peshawar to northern
Afghanistan.  WFP reports that delivery times for its shipments will be
cut by three to four hours.

- WFP plans to deploy helicopters to provide rapid assessment capability
for remote areas and to respond quickly to acute food needs with small
amounts of emergency supplies.  It will immediately deploy two helicopters
to Balkh Province to help in efforts to provide assistance to malnourished
populations in remote locations identified last week in Zarah District.
Four more helicopters will be based in Chaghcharan and Bamiyan to cover
the Central Highlands.

- WFP field monitors are already on the ground in Zarah District.  WFP is
currently moving 392 MT of food (including 12 MT of high-energy biscuits)
into the district.  WFP plans to use trucks and donkeys to get needed food
to remote villages.  In addition, WFP intends to conduct assessments of
populations living higher up the mountain who have not yet been surveyed.

- According to media reports on January 14, a convoy of relief aid heading
for Afghanistan has become trapped in the snows in the mountains of
Tajikistan.  The 23-truck convoy carrying more than 100 MT of flour for
WFP is blocked because of avalanches near Ishkashim, around 40 kilometers
from the Afghan border.  Rescue teams have arrived on the spot and are
working to clear the way for the convoy organized by the Russian, Tajik,
and Kyrgyz emergencies ministries.


U.S. Government Activities

New Actions

- On January 11 and 12, USAID/OFDA airlifted 1,000 winterized tents,
donated by the American Red Cross, to Turkmenabad, Turkmenistan (at a
transportation cost of $167,000).  The tents were consigned to the
International Organization for Migration (IOM), who is transporting them
by truck into Afghanistan.  The tents will provide emergency shelter for
IDPs in Mazar-e-Sharif.


Disaster Declarations & Background

- On October 4, 2001, Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs
Christina B. Rocca redeclared a complex humanitarian disaster for
Afghanistan for FY 2002.

- On October 10, 2001, U.S. Chargé d'Affaires James A. Boughner declared a
disaster for Tajikistan due to drought.


FY 2002 USG Assistance to Afghanistan

Total USAID/OFDA	$76,258,242
Total USAID/FFP 	$40,555,000
Total USAID/OTI	$1,687,820
Total State/PRM	$32,260,000
Total DOD*	$50,897,769

TOTAL USG Humanitarian Assistance FY 2002   $201,658,831
TOTAL USG Humanitarian Assistance FY 2001   $183,107,625

TOTAL USG Humanitarian Assistance to Afghanistan FY 2001/2002
$384,766,456



FY 2002 USG Assistance to Tajikistan

Total USAID/OFDA	$998,180
Total USAID/FFP	$20,000,000
TOTAL USG Humanitarian Assistance to Tajikistan FY 2002   $20,998,180
TOTAL USG Humanitarian Assistance to Tajikistan FY 2001   $67,210,000

TOTAL USG Humanitarian Assistance to Tajikistan FY 2001/2002
$88,208,180

Note: Full details of funding above are available in weekly USAID/OFDA
Central Asia Region Situation Reports.

*Note: DOD funding totals are estimates.


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