U.N. aid agencies want to speed Afghan relief effort before winter

By JONATHAN FOWLER
Associated Press Writer

GENEVA – Aid workers are looking for new ways, including airdrops, to get urgently needed supplies to remote parts of Afghanistan before winter sets in, U.N. relief agencies said Friday.

"There are 100,000 families isolated in inaccessible regions of Afghanistan," World Food Program spokeswoman Christiane Berthiaume told reporters.

The agency has been trucking supplies from neighboring Pakistan, but roads will soon be impassable, Berthiaume said.

Berthiaume said the World Food Program wants to start an airlift as soon as possible but needs permission from Afghanistan's ruling Taliban. "We need safe air corridors," she said.

The Taliban have banned flights over their territory, fearing U.S. retaliatory strikes for the Sept. 11 terror attacks on New York and Washington. The United States has accused the hard-line Islamic regime of harboring Osama bin Laden, chief suspect in the attacks.

About 1.25 million people have been displaced within Afghanistan by drought and years of civil war, said Nigel Fisher, who directs UNICEF efforts in the region.

Around half of them are children, and half are suffering from serious malnutrition. "Hundreds of thousands of them urgently need blankets, medication and food," he said.

Earlier this week the U.N. children's agency used 800 donkeys to transport aid from Pakistan.

Aid work was disrupted after the terror attacks when agencies withdrew their expatriate staff from Afghanistan. Some, including UNICEF and the international Red Cross, now rely on Afghan workers to carry on the effort.

The international Red Cross said Friday that it has resumed deliveries to Mazar-e-Sharif, a Taliban-held region of northern Afghanistan where 35,000 people have fled drought and fighting.

The Geneva-based agency also appealed for $29 million to fund emergency operations across Afghanistan.

Last week, the Red Cross sent an aid convoy to the Taliban-held capital, Kabul. It also continues to send aid convoys to areas held by the anti-Taliban alliance based in the north.

About 30,000 Afghans have fled to Pakistan since the terror attacks, Fisher said. Aid agencies say many more may follow – 1.5 million in the worst-case scenario. Pakistan and Iran together already host more than 3.5 million Afghans.

AP-WS-10-05-01 1230EDT