The suspension of United Nations road missions to Maimana was lifted yesterday and international UN staff members started to return to the Faryab provincial Capital at about 9:00 a.m. We have been informed that the situation in Maimana is calm and quiet, with the ceasefire holding.

At the last briefing we told you that the initial UN demining team had left the city on Sunday having done all it could to remove mines and unexploded ordnance (UXOs) in Maimana. As you may recall we told you they had requested a more specialized and larger team be sent in to deal with more complex sites which had been found near the outskirts of the city and particularly one which was in a factional military compound with a lot of explosive material. In response to that request the Coalition has sent in a team of experts to detonate and remove explosives in the locales identified.

On 22 April at 9 am a Demining survey team of three from the Mine Clearance Planning Agency (MCPA) NGO was attacked on the Jalalabad-Kabul road. This happened, while they were carrying out their duties driving in a white land cruiser marked with MCPA.

Approximately ten rounds of gunshots were fired at them from the north side of the Tangy Abrishom mountain range, in Saroubi district of Kabul province, as they were traveling between their work sites. The incident lasted for about ten minutes until some passersby in vehicles came to their assistance.

All three staff of MCPA were Afghans. Two of them received slight injuries to their legs and are currently in a Peshawar hospital for treatment. Due to this incident the United Nations Mine Action Campaign for Afghanistan, (UNMACA) has suspended all its activities on this road until Saturday, April 26. UN road missions along this road have also immediately been suspended for 48 hours following the incident.

The local Government Security Forces have traveled to the area to secure it and carry out investigations. The UN Security team is also currently in the process of assessing the situation.

The road Kabul - Torkham, (via Jalalabad) is about 175 KM. The demining works are part of the preparatory works before major reconstruction of this road by the European Commission begins this year.

Heavy rains caused flooding in Helmand, Kandahar and Zabul provinces in the south on 18 and 19 April. Roads were blocked from Delaram to Helmand, from Kandahar to Spin Boldak and from Qalat (Zabul province) to Kandahar.

In the worst affected district of Baghran (Helmand) which is 160 km northwest from Lashkar Gah, according to the District Commissioner and Head of the Police approximately 30 people died and 8 people injured. It was also reported that 45 houses have been washed away. Sokhtay and Anara villages have been vacated and 2000 Jeribs of land have been eroded. Char Dara, Arsala, Gohoghori, Baghijui and Qala Rechar villages have been partially affected.

However, due to security restriction in the area since the murder of the International Red Cross worker, the NGOs, UN agencies and UNAMA staff cannot travel to these flood affected areas, which have been classified by the UN security as a no go area for the last two weeks. The local Government (Baghran district) has agreed to send trucks to load the assistance given by the aid agencies, NGOs and UNAMA in Kandahar. The transportation and distribution of the aid will be carried out by the local Government with the Helmand Reconstruction Agency (HRA), which is an Afghan NGO operating in the area.

In Spin Boldak, the Afghan staff of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) reported that a seven year old Kuchi boy was killed and about 17 Kuchi tents washed away by the heavy floods.

Currently the emergency response team chaired by UNAMA has committed following items to be delivered to the flood victims:

Catholic Relief Services (CRS) - 200 blankets,
UNHCR - 50 tents,
UNICEF - plastic sheeting and biscuits (high energy supplements)
And UNAMA is providing with 50 tents.

Food, water, health services and non-food items are being provided to 255 families whose villages were flooded in the Shomali plains. They have been relocated to an area about 5km south of Bagram called Barikab.

Tents, blankets, plastic sheeting, soap, hygiene kits, hurricane lamps and stoves are being provided by UNICEF, UNHCR, the Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation and the Coalition. Food is being supplied by the World Food Programme (WFP) while the Afghan Red Crescent Society (ARCS) is providing health services to the people. The Coalition sent two 400 US gallon water tanks and then the MRRD and UNICEF will take over the water supply. The Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development (ACTED) will provide clothing as well as materials to help construct latrines in the area.

The United Nations Mine Action Centre (UNMACA) has sent a mine survey team to the area and is marking out any contaminated areas in the vicinity of the site. Today they will also dispatch a mine awareness team to carry out a mine-awareness campaign among the settlers.

In a meeting with local authorities including the Governor of Parwan province and representatives from the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development (MRRD) and UN agencies it was agreed that assistance will be provided to the people in the new location for up to one month, then a longer term solution will have to be found.

In the area where the flooding occurred - in the Ghorband and Panjshir river delta, the MRRD will work with the Coalition to construct retention walls along the river banks to stop flooding.

The Afghan Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry (MAAH) and the UN Food and Agricultur Organization authorities have been working together in northern Afghanistan to avert a locust threat. Anti-locust teams are doing their best in the provinces of Kunduz, Baghlan, Samangan and Balkh. On the week of 11 April, the Afghan Minister of Agriculture visited infested areas of locusts and participated in the FAO activities. He was very satisfied of the on-going work done in the field and he is aware of the emergency nature of this operation.

Predictions about the spread of locusts following the surveys done in winter time have been confirmed and the planned response is being implemented on a step by step basis. The FAO is also giving regular progress reports to the concerned provincial departments. In the major locust areas, which broadly speaking are those below 800 meters in altitude, hatching is complete. There are, however, reports of mines is some infested areas. For instance, the most infested area in Khanabad, Kunduz province contains unmarked minefields where it is impossible to work.

Support for this operation both last year and this year was provided by the Governments of Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States The Belgian military forces also support the programme airlifting thousands of litres of pesticides to affected areas. Another airlift of 10,000 litres will take place on 25 April in Mazar-i-Sharif.

We have a press release at the side with more details.

A joint Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry (MAAH)/FAO investigation team has reported an outbreak of diseases in the northern provinces which is affecting newborn lambs. These diseases have not yet been identified and are currently being diagnosed by veterinary services of the FAO and the MAAH. Informed estimates say that the diseases could either be foot and mouth disease, (FMD), pasteurollisis and or/or peste de petits ruminants (PPR).

The infection started in Baghlan province and spread towards Kunduz, Takhar, Samangan and Balkh provinces. Eighty to 85 percent of the newborn lambs are dying of the malady.

On a national scale, an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) would debilitate cattle, which plough wheat fields in the "breadbaskets" of Western and Northern Afghanistan and till soil in irrigated valleys, seriously threatening food security. Most Afghan farming households depend on their livestock for their day-to-day needs and for income. Outbreaks of FMD, which affects cattle and PPR, which affects goats and sheep, would therefore hit both the households' immediate source of food and their medium-term source of emergency funds.

Again, we have press release at the side of the room with more details.

Questions and Answers

Question: There have been reports that the US Embassy is tightening its security due to a high possibility terrorist attack. What is your respond to this information?

Answer: It is a good question, but I think it's a question you really have to raise with the US Embassy. There is a sharing of information, but as far as I know the United Nations Security (UNSECORD) is tasked with the implementing all the security measures being put in place [for the UN]. Apart from the incidents that we told you about in the south, in Kandahar last week, the security measures throughout the rest of the country is pretty much is the same as has been in the last few months.

Question: What is the UN reaction on the security incident on Jalalabad road?

Answer: Our reaction is the same. Such acts are unacceptable. They highlight the issue we have been raising for months and months - a security outside Kabul is far from perfect. There is a need for additional measures. We do not welcome incidents like this, and hopefully we can improve this down the line.

Question: Have the movements suspended in this area?

Answer: [UN road missions along this road have also immediately been suspended for 48 hours following the incident.]

If there are no more questions, I would like to present our guest today.

Gary will give a presentation on the labour-intensive public works programme and its sequel, the National Emergency Employment Programme and cash for work activities, which generate skills and employment in Afghanistan.