Photo: Masoud Popalzai/IRIN

Avalanches in Salang Tunnel on 8-9 February killed over 15 passengers and wounded dozens more, the government said

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KABUL,  – Avalanches on a highway north of Kabul killed at least 15 and injured 55 on 8-9 February, according to the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH).

[Update: On 10 February the government said 165 people had been killed and over 2,400 passengers rescued.]

Passengers got trapped in their vehicles on either side of the Salang Tunnel, north of Kabul on 9 February. The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) sent two helicopters to help evacuate people and drop essential supplies, the Afghanistan National Disasters Management Authority (ANDMA) said.

“We are trying our best to evacuate about 700 people as soon as possible,” Abdul Matin Edrak, ANDMA’s director, told IRIN.

The MoPH said 25 ambulances and dozens of health workers had been sent to the scene, described by Ahmad Shah Wahid, deputy public works minister, as a “disaster”.

“At least 40 injured have been taken hospital in Charikar City [Parwan Province],” Farid Raaid, MoPH’s spokesman, told IRIN.

Avalanches and floods have also killed a number of people, destroyed houses and blocked roads in different parts of the country over the past few days.

Reports received by ANDMA indicate that flash floods and avalanches have left over 30 dead in Kandahar, Farah, Bamyan and Ghor provinces.

Road blockages have already prompted a sudden hike in food prices, making it difficult for most poor people to afford adequate food.

Pressure on food prices

Officials in Ghor Province, central-southern Afghanistan, said roads to almost all districts were closed by snow.

“Even the airport and roads to villages near the provincial capital are blocked,” Golam Yahya Rasuli, provincial director of the Afghan Red Crescent Society (ARCS), told IRIN by phone on 9 February.

Similar situations have been reported in Badakhshan, Bamyan, Daykundi, Nooristan and Ghazni provinces.

“Road blockages have already prompted a sudden hike in food prices, making it difficult for most poor people to afford adequate food,” Sayed Naser Hemat, ARCS director in Badakhshan Province, told IRIN.

The Public Works Ministry said efforts are under way to reopen roads.

Cold-related diseases

The MoPH has dispatched 100 mobile medical teams to 128 vulnerable districts in 28 of the country’s 34 provinces since January to prevent a spread of pneumonia and influenza.

“These teams are treating patients and are monitoring and reporting on the situation,” said Raaid.

Medical teams swiftly responded to outbreaks of flu and pneumonia in the Ragh District of Badakhshan Province where vulnerable individuals were vaccinated, he said.

An added worry is H1N1 influenza. Over the past few months, over 950 people have contracted the disease and 17 have died, according to MoPH. The H1N1 emergency is still officially on.

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Photo: OCHA/VMU

A map of Afghanistan highlighting the restive southern province of Hilmand (also spelt Helmand)

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KABUL, – Hundreds of civilian families are fleeing parts of Helmand Province, southern Afghanistan, ahead of a major military operation by foreign and Afghan forces.

The offensive is expected to drive Taliban insurgents out of Marjah, which has an estimated population of 80,000 people, according to government officials, and the surrounding area.

“Marjah has been surrounded by Afghan and foreign forces but people have told us the Taliban are not allowing them to get out of there,” Ahmadullah Ahmadi, director of the Afghan Red Crescent Society (ARCS) office in Helmand, told IRIN.

Many were fleeing the area on foot at night, and without taking any belongings with them, he said, adding: “About 300 families have fled the Nad Ali and Babaji areas and over 100 families have left Marjah over the past week.”

Some had sought refuge in Lashkargah, the provincial capital, while others had gone to other relatively secure districts.

Dawod Ahmadi, a spokesman for the governor of Helmand, said 95 families had arrived in Lashkargah from Marjah as of 8 February.

Leaflets

The government says it is not encouraging people to leave their homes.

“The operation has been designed to avoid harm to civilians and we have not asked people to leave their homes,” provincial spokesman Dawod Ahmadi told IRIN.

However, leaflets warning of an imminent military operation dropped in Marjah by NATO helicopters may have prompted some to leave, though the insurgents are reportedly preventing civilians from moving out of areas currently under their control.

The UN and rights watchdogs have accused the insurgents of deliberately using civilians and their homes as a defensive shield. No Taliban spokesperson was immediately available for comment.

Among those leaving Marjah and its environs are some Taliban supporters or sympathizers who may not opt to seek refuge in Laskargah city, aid workers say.

“These families usually go to other districts but often do not receive assistance” said ARCS’s Ahmadi.

However, the provincial authorities have given assurances that a relief committee set up to assist the displaced would seek to provide aid without discrimination.

“Those fleeing the conflict are not fighters but innocent women and children and we would assist them,” said Dawod Ahmadi, the provincial spokesman.

Shelter

Whilst many displaced people are believed to be seeking temporary refuge with relatives and friends in Lashkargah city and elsewhere in the province, some would inevitably need shelter assistance, according to aid workers.

“The weather is cold and shelter is need number one for the displaced,” said ARCS’s Ahmadi.

The provincial government has earmarked a newly-built school in Lashkargah city to shelter about 100 displaced families.

Provincial spokesman Ahmadi said: “We believe this will be a short-term displacement and people will be able to return to their homes soon after military operations are complete.”

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Mr Mandela smiles as he leaves after casting his vote at a polling station in Houghton in this April 22, 2009 photo. File

What kind of person

“He made mistakes in life. Towards his family, his friends. He made mistakes even in political decisions.”

Sixteen years after the first multirace polls that brought Mandela to the presidency, South Africa still needs the symbol of reconciliation and tolerance in a society torn apart by inequality, Matshiqi says. (AFP)

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