Oxfam's Emergency Aid in Badakshan
19 December 2001
Oxfam staffer Melinda Young delivers a personal report from the field on Oxfam's relief work in Badakshan, Afghanistan.
Oxfam is working in Shahr-e-Buzurg, which is the westernmost district of Badakshan in the north-east of Afghanistan, on the Tajikistan border. We started working there in 1998 after an earthquake, and we were the only international agency that stayed afterwards.
This region is very wild and isolated and cut-off. People don't have enough food. They reap only what they sow, and often less. The children have been gathering grass to eat and mixing the grass with a little flour when they have it. But with the grass denuded by people eating it, there's no fodder for the cattle. So the cows are in a bad way and many people have had to sell their livestock. It's a food crisis area at the best of times. People also used to pan for alluvial gold to make a little money, but the drought means the gold isn't being washed into the streams.
We've tried to distribute all the food by the first week of December, because after that it really gets cut off. The way in is by a road built by Oxfam--well, lots of local people built it--Oxfam provided them with food as part of the food-for-asset-creation scheme. It's 40 kms long. Building it helped 1,500 families--about 10,000 people. But it is cut off by the rain and snow now. Our staff have been coming out in the last few days to celebrate the Eid holiday with their families, and they've had to come out on horseback.
Oxfam has eight horses, and that's how we travel around. We've got vehicles too, but they can't use the road when winter comes. People ask why don't we get snow clearing equipment in to clear the road, but it's not as simple as that because you can't get the equipment over the mountains and then, when you've cleared it, it's all mud and potholes. But people have to come down the road to get to our distribution site.
The World Food Program delivers wheat to a place called Qochi, which isn't even in Shahr-e-Buzurg, but across a river. Then we have to pay a guy who's rigged up a cable across the river with some scrap metal. The wheat sacks get hauled over the river on the cable one by one--a process that goes on all day. People get over that way too. Sometimes if the cable (it's called a flying fox) isn't working, you have to cross the river on a raft made of animal skins blown up and you have to go down the river and over the rapids on this raft, which I've done.
Then you radio our office in Shahr-e-Buzurg town and our staff get out on their horses and go round and tell the local commanders and they alert the people by getting on the radio. Then the people from the villages come down to the Oxfam distribution point. Most people don't even have donkeys so they have to walk. From the North it takes them about two days. We get reports of some deaths on the journey, even in summer. The people go on narrow paths on very thin scree above huge ravines. When it's icy like now especially, people slip and fall. When they arrive we register them--we have a list and we have someone from their village there to vouch that they are who they say they are, and we fingerprint people.
Then they have to arrange to carry the food back to their villages. Some people have a donkey that will take one sack--the wheat comes in 50 kg bags. But most people carry it back to their villages on their backs. Each family gets four or five bags, so often people will leave some bags behind with children to guard them. They set up a camp while the adults carry one or two bags back home and then they have to return to get the rest. So it's two days down, two days up, two days down, two days up. We're distributing to over 4,000 families. That's about 30,000 people representing 80% of the people in 63 villages. Then later our staff ride out to the villages and do random samples to make sure that the right people have got the food. We've got 35 staff. They come to Shahr-e-Buzurg town on Fridays to meet up, then they move out and spend most of the week travelling around the villages. They're pretty nomadic, on horseback often.
People are desperate in these isolated areas, and it can be dangerous for our staff. They are sometimes threatened, and people do occasionally try and take food. We normally manage to sort things out with the support of the local community and their leaders, but on occasion staff have been hurt. If this happens we stop our work and explain to the leaders that we can't work in these conditions. We are very cautious, but Afghanistan is a dangerous place to work.
We were distributing food up to the December 14, after which we had some security problems. We had to stop for a few days for Eid [religious holiday] anyway, because everything shuts down then. That might prove to be our last distribution due to the winter weather. Whatever is left can be given to another NGO locally, which can finish it off. We desperately requested WFP to give us all the food by the end of November, then we asked for it by the end of the first week of December but their transport has been so slow we've still got wheat outstanding. Now there'll be no access again until the end of March. But I think we've managed to get enough food out to see people through. We've got most of it in. People are happy they've been getting some food. The same goes for our program in Hazarajat.
People are hoping the new government will have more influence here. They're happy to get a new government. But nobody in the new government is from Badakshan and it has always tended to be isolated and forgotten, so they may not be lucky.
Oxfam general situation report:
Badakhshan:
Assessments have also been done related to emergency coverage of Takhar and Kunduz and potential need for Oxfam response. It seems both provinces are well covered with no need for Oxfam to move in, but we need to keep our focus on Badakhshan in the far northeast. Both Hazarajat and Badakhshan are preparing for winter program hibernation.
Bad weather has already cut off some districts of northern Badakhshan for food distribution, before all food could be transported. This is the case in Ragh where NAC was the implementing agency for food aid. Significant amounts of food did not arrive in time from WFP.
In Shahr-e-Buzurg beneficiaries are still able to make it to the distribution site, although conditions are becoming more difficult. WFP has been requested to send all remaining commitments this week, and they have said they will.
Kandahar and surrounds:
WFP transporters are unwilling to cross the border at Chaman for security reasons. Out of six agencies working with WFP, two did not get food delivered before security collapsed. Oxfam was one.
The humanitarian situation at Spin Boldak is very bad. These are people who cannot pay the requisite bribe to get into no man's land, and then into Kili Faisal [transit refugee camp near Chaman]. Islamic Relief is feeding 4 camps of about 23,000 people. Two other Islamic organizations have other camps, but no information is available. Islamic Relief is taking food in, but with their own transporters and not using WFP transporters.
Water and sanitation are big problems at Spin Boldak and we have been talking to Islamic Relief. We have talked to our staff about the possibly of using surplus refugee water and sanitation equipment, and some expertise from the refugee team, if this is required. Moving part of the operation across the border raises two issues, a) security, and b) the donors agreeing to shift the resources to Afghanistan.
It seems that the need for warm clothes, shelter, quilts and blankets and heating is more than for food. Some nights have been below zero in Quetta.
Internally Displaced Persons (IDP)--we are gradually collecting relevant information. Our best contribution will probably be in water and sanitation. The other would be distribution of non-food items. Both UNICEF and Save the Children are happy to give us non-food items.
Food [in the South more generally] is a key issue. There is little information coming out of the south. One area of particular concern is an IDP camp in Nimroz near the Iran border. MCI, Islamic Relief, and other organizations have been reasonably successful with food distributions.
Emergency food--assessment is complete in all four districts (in Zabul province where local partners were assessing and where we were anticipating helping them distribute to c. 50,000 people). We are waiting for the food deliveries from WFP--dependent on improved security.
Herat/Western Region:
The security situation there seems to get better. There is now regular contact with the Oxfam team in Jawand district of Badghis. There are still some risks travelling outside Heart, and the security situation of the district is not yet completely stabilized. It is mainly because the local commanders are not yet under the full control of the central government. Gormach district in Badghis remains unstable. We are getting reports of signifcant numbers of people having left the area.
According to the information collected by our assessment team in Badghis, the food situation in Jawand and Tagab Alam as well as other parts of Badghis was critical before September 11. Since then, insecurity problems have prevented our distributing food properly in these districts, and now the situation is at its worst, as declared by the local people, for the whole of the last drought-hit 3 years. We believe that a general food distribution is urgently needed to prevent a disaster in these areas. On Monday December 17, John Fairhurst (Oxfam Afghanistan rep) said that the WFP food promised for Jawand in the second or third week of December had not arrived there as of Friday 14th. But WFP has promised it was on the border and its arrival should be imminent, possibly over the weekend. Concern about the potential late arrival of the food has been raised with WFP. The Oxfam team has done the initial assessments and made arrangements and is waiting for it. The plan is to distribute to 86,000 people in Jawand and over 22,000 in Tagab Alam. There are agreements with WFP to supply 5,600 metric tons of food, enough for 5 Months (November-March 2002) for 18,700 households in Jawand/Tagab Alam.
Recently, a number of internally displaced people have been arriving at the Herat town camps. These IDPs are coming mainly from Ghor and Qala Naw districts due to hunger, and from Ghormach mainly due to insecurity. The situation of IDPs in Herat has become one of the major issues concerning agencies, considering the coming winter. Therefore an Oxfam assessment team went in from Iran.
On December 17, we heard from that assessment team. They report three things:
A) They have spoken with most NGO and UN and administrative actors. The humanitarian situation appears to be stable and, for the most part, under control.
B) Security has been good enough for them to visit the camps. IDP numbers have slightly increased and continue to do so but the rate of increase is very low.
C) There are gaps in service provision but nothing desperate or likely to have immediate adverse consequences if not filled.
From other information IOM, UNICEF, UNHCR, and some other NGOs are distributing non-food items, besides the food that is provided by WFP. [We had been sceptical of some of the figures in media reports about the numbers of new IDPs in the town. It seemed to us more likely that the figures were in the tens of thousands rather than the hundreds of thousands and I guess the new assessment bears that out].
Oxfam in Herat plans to arrange with IOM to distribute non-food items for IDPs and the most needy families in Badghis where Oxfam is working. This is to be planned in detail when the team is back in Herat.
The Herat team plans to conduct an agricultural survey to find out the need for seed which is to be distributed in Jawand/Tagab Alam for winter planting (in February). DACAAR and FAO have some seed that they are looking for partners to distribute.
Oxfam Herat team plans to recruit female staff on the team since the situation has now changed and might favor women's participation in various tasks.
Hazarajat:
Regarding security, there was some disagreement between commanders in Waras and Panjao districts--elders mediated and no fighting resulted. A new commander in Waras said he would support Oxfam in our work but there is a need for caution in the district, due to the presence of armed groups from 3 factions. He suggested that non-food relief item distribution in the district be halted until assurances are given for staff safety.
Access to some districts, and between districts, is becoming difficult. Some passes are only intermittently traversible. The area is on the cusp of winter cut-off. Non-food relief item distribution is incomplete but preparations have been made (and for complementary food distributions) and should be possible to complete after Eid if all materials have been procured before then. The UNICEF materials (schoolbooks for winter schools) have been transported to Hazarajat.
Training: staff will undertake landmine awareness training in view of new styles of weapons, e.g. cluster bombs with depleted uranium, new mine types and new unexploded ordnance.
Other Afghanistan items:
UNHCR warns refugees against rushing home.
IOM has reported the death of 177 people in Kunduz because of cold and lack of food.
According to the IDP database, which consists of known point locations of IDP camps and concentrations that have been field verified and geocoded, there are a total of 123,481 families displaced. It is estimated that there are 81 concentrations in Zabul alone accounting for 2,276 families, 1,700 families in Bamyan, 1,600 in Bakshan, 36,483 in Herat and 965 in Helmand among others. [A family can comprise 6-7 people so that's potentially three-quarters of a million IDPs nationally].
Despite lots of raised hopes and trumpetings and fanfares about the opening of the so-called Friendship Bridge from Uzbekistan, the food going across it seems to have only advanced a grand total of a few hundred yards. Most WFP food is still getting in from Turkmenistan and Iran.
Pakistan:
There was a security incident on Friday December 14 at Rhogani camp when a driver under contract to Oxfam to deliver water to a bladder tank there was in an argument with refugees. The driver was hurt and had to be taken to hospital. It is as yet unclear what happened and no indication this was anything to do with Oxfam per se. There have been a number of unpleasant incidents lately. In general they have occurred late in the day when people are tired, thirsty and hungry prior to breaking their Ramadan fast. Extra security precautions are in force. The most serious incident was on Wednesday December 12 when the driver of a vehicle carrying goods to the camp was killed on the Chaman-Rhogani road when caught in the crossfire between a unit of levies and a group of thieves that they were chasing.
