News
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
UN hopes to restart aid work by weekendNEW DELHI: Aid distribution, suspended after twin suicide attacks killed 43 displaced people in northwest Pakistan over the weekend, should resume by the end of the week, the head of the UN’s emergency office said on Tuesday.
But other UN and NGO programmes are in danger of being cut or closed because of lack of funding from the international community.
About 300 people, displaced by fighting between the Pakistani army and the Taliban, were queuing for food and shelter assistance at a UN registration point in Kohat district on Saturday when two suicide bombers, dressed in burqas, attacked.
The UN subsequently suspended humanitarian operations in Kohat as well as the neighbouring region of Hangu, where it is assisting more than 250,000 people who have fled fighting in Afghan border areas.
UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) head Manuel Bessler said, the two displacement camps in Hangu were still “fully operational” but registration activities and distribution of aid to those outside camps had been suspended.
“The tragedy is not in suspending our activities, but the fact that 43 people were killed. Obviously, we cannot go back to business-as-usual after such a big tragedy. We have to review security arrangements,” Bessler said.
“We have a meeting on Wednesday, so I think we will be able to restart our activities before the end of the week,” he said.
Bessler said the UN and other international aid agencies working in the area would screen more rigorously at registration and distribution points. reuters
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk