Our UNAMA colleagues in Mazar office are currently in Maimana city where they arrived yesterday and they are there at the request of the Security Commission of the North.They have been able to help broker an agreement between warring faction Jumbesh and Jamiat in Maimana. That agreement that has been reached calls for the withdrawal of troops from Maimana city.

The fighting began at around 3:15 pm on April the 8th, following the killing of a high ranking Jamiat commander in the city.

The assistance community - UN and NGOs - were forced to close their offices, because they happened to be in the line of the fighting between the two factions. UNAMA, who had been in contact with the security commission, immediately deployed to facilitate the resolution of the fighting, traveling first to Shibergan and then to within 40 km of Maimana city to await a break in the fighting that would allow them to go into the city.

During the night of the 8th, fighting continued before an initial ceasefire was brokered early Wednesday morning by a team composed of General Fawzi (Jumbesh) and General Saboor (Jamiat) - two of the highest-ranking members of the Mazar security commission. UNAMA officials then were able to enter the city to facilitate brokering the agreement; our colleagues remain in Maimana talking to all those relevant parties.

This fighting has caused 13 dead and 17 wounded. Report received this morning indicated that last night was calm and that there has been no gunfire since 11 am yesterday.

We would also like to inform you that yesterday, soon after the ceasefire, a demonstration involving some 400 people demanding immediate disarmament took place at the Governor's Office before moving to UNAMA's Maimana office.

Maimana, as you will recall, is a location where a disarmament process facilitated by the Mazar Multi Party Security Commission stalled some two months ago due to problems over coordination. The situation in Maimana is described to us this morning as tense but calm and it continues to be closely monitored. If we have more details we will pass them on to you.

Moving on to a more positive note. I want to tell you about something we have not spoken for a long time - housing. There are some 6800 houses being built in Kandahar, Jalalabad and Mazar, as well as main water systems in Mazar and Jalalabad. All is currently ongoing and is expected to be completed this year.

This is a project, which involves the municipalities of these three cities Mazar, Jalalabad and Kandahar, community representatives and the UN Habitat. Works already are in progress and the building of 2000 houses in Kandahar, 1500 houses in Jalalabad and a main water system in Mazar will be completed by June this year.

The rest of the construction works will be finished by November and that means an additional 1000 houses in Kandahar, 1000 houses in Mazar and 1250 houses and a main water system in Jalalabad.

Families and communities are doing the construction work, while the project is providing them with all the necessary building materials and engineering expertise.

This has been possible with a grant of 5.5 million US dollar from the Japanese Government.

More than one thousand internally displaced people who were living in Maslakh camp near Herat have gone back to their home villages in Badghis province this week. This follows a suspension of two convoys of IDP returns to Badghis last month because of fighting in the province. The returns were organized by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the IDPs received a reintegration package from various UN agencies.

Alex from WFP, is here will tell you more about WFP's assistance to these movements of IDPs.

IDPs are returning home for the spring planting season. More returns assisted by IOM are being planned from Maslakh and Shaidayee camps to Ghor province when the weather and road conditions improve.

An overall better security situation in the West of Afghanistan and a significant improvement of the agricultural capacity in the region due to the end of the drought, has resulted in a large-scale return of internally displaced Afghans from IDP camps in Herat to their places of origin in Ghor, Badghis, Hirat and Farah provinces.

During February and March 2003, close to 10,000 IDPs have already made the decision to return to their areas of origin and have departed the camps in Hirat in facilitated return movements.

Under the coordinated effort of the Ministry of Refugees and Returnees (MORR), and supported by UNHCR and UNAMA, WFP's overall objective for this year in the Western region is to facilitate the return of IDPs to their places of origin, and to help stabilize and support returnees though the identification and implementation of projects that assist returnees in their home villages.

As requested by the government and the donor community, since the beginning of the year, WFP Hirat Has been shifting from emergency-oriented operations in the IDP Camps around Hirat to more sustainable rehabilitation and reconstruction activities in the provinces. The objective is to implement Food For Work (FFW) activities in the places of origin of internally displaced people in all four provinces. WFP is currently supporting 38 projects with a total of 1 million beneficiaries many of whom are former IDPs . Of these projects 24 are FFW projects supporting 670,000 beneficiaries or 110,000 households.

At the same time, a coordinated phase-out strategy is being developed in order to establish alternative durable solutions for those IDPs choosing to remain in the camps around Hirat. Due to improved economic opportunities and better access to education and health facilities, many IDPs have indicated in recent surveys that the prefer to stay around urban areas where they may ultimately integrate into the community.

It is expected that general food distributions will finish in April 2003 not to affect farmers' decision to return to their places of origin to prepare for the next harvest. IDPs choosing to return are receiving transport, cash, food assistance and non-food assistance to assist with reintegration in their home villages. Limited special assistance for the most vulnerable people in the camps may continue in some cases, including supplementary feeding to children under 10 years old, pregnant and breast-feeding mothers, and TB patients until the end of their treatment.

Questions and Answers

Question: Can this outbreak of fighting be associated to the timetable of the DDR announced on Monday?

Spokesman: I doubt it. Of course you will have to ask them what motivated them. But it seems that the reasons predates that announcement, because it has to do with a killing of a high-ranking Jamiat commander in the city, which I believe was before [the announcement]. I do not have the exact date but I do not think it was therefore related to an announcement. I think it was related to the killing of a senior commander there.

Question: What is the breakdown of civilian and military casualties in Maimana?

Spokesman: We do not have an exact breakdown yet, however, we do have information that it seems that two civilians aged 8 and 16 years old were amongst the dead. The 8 years old is a girl. But we do not have more than that. This is preliminary report that reached us.

Question: What are the United Nations obligations for Afghanistan? Is it only to sympathize, or what can it do further to avoid bombing of civilians?

Spokesman: We can talk to those who do the bombing. We don't pilot the planes. We are not party to the plans of the war against terror. So, what we can do is to bring our concerns to the attention of those who plan. We know they also share these concerns, because it is not the first time that it happens; we have discussed this with them before. But, it should not be happening.

Question: Are the UN activities suspended in Maimana?

Spokesman: When there was the ceasefire signed yesterday morning, later in the morning when the situation was somewhat stabilized, the expatriate staff from UN agencies and NGOs, as well as the national staff that are not from Maimana, went to Mazar. So, evidently, the conflict has a direct impact on our capacity to deliver.

Question: Why Maimana was not included into the group of five provinces for Disarmament, Demobilization andReintegration (DDR)? Why was not given a priority, because there are tensions there?

Spokesman: I don't think they have defined yet where they will start. They have indicated some five provinces where they think they will have better chances of starting well. Minister Pashtun announced that here a few days ago, last Sunday. I don't think that the Commissions on Disarmament and on Demobilization reached a final decision on where exactly to start.

Question: Who negotiated the ceasefire? Was it UNAMA?

Spokesman: The ceasefire was negotiated initially by the two senior commanders of Jamiat and Jumbesh, as senior members of the Security Commission of the North. The agreement to withdraw forces from Maimana followed that, and it was brokered by UNAMA.

Question: Do you have the name of the commander that was killed?

Spokesman: No, I do not have that.

Question: Regarding condolences in relations to the bombings. When United Nations speaks to the people involved in the bombing, what is it actually saying? Is it expressing concern? Is it asking for (inaudible)?

Spokesman: What I think we discuss with them is that these errors have, in addition to all the suffering that they mean to those affected and the anger they provoke country wide, we know, the coalition knows, that they have negative effects on the coalition themselves, on the international community at large, but very importantly, it has a very negative impact on the peace process in Afghanistan. These are the things we discuss with them.