Oxfam Calls For Pause in Bombing

Posted: 17 October 2001

BOSTON - Aid agency Oxfam America today called for the bombing of Afghanistan to be suspended to allow food to be delivered in safety and in sufficient quantities to sustain people through winter.

The call by Oxfam International, and several other leading agencies*, comes 24 hours after a missile exploded a few hundred meters from a UN World Food Program depot in Kabul. A convoy of 250 tons of food being loaded at the time was to have gone to an Oxfam distribution site in Hazarajat. This would have been the first food into the Oxfam Hazarajat project since September 11.

The agencies said that laborers and truckers were becoming increasingly afraid to load or unload food, to drive deep into Afghanistan, or to stay overnight in Afghan towns and cities. This series of events has significantly affected the ability of agencies to carry out their work.

"It is now evident that we cannot, in reasonable safety, get food to hungry Afghan people," said Oxfam America President Raymond C. Offenheiser, "We've reached the point where it is simply unrealistic for us to do our job in Afghanistan. We've run out of food, the borders are closed, we can't reach our staff and time is running out."

The aid agencies need public guarantees from all parties that military forces will not target or impede aid convoys. The call extends to the Northern Alliance, the US and UK-led alliance, and the Taliban, which must drop additional charges on aid convoys, and allow aid workers to monitor the aid effort and resume communications.

The agencies say that a pause in the bombing now gives the best hope of averting a humanitarian crisis on a large scale:

400,000 people are already thought to be surviving on wild vegetation and essential livestock;
Two million people do not have enough food aid to last the winter, and of those, half-a-million people will be cut off by snow by mid November;
Millions more are on the move and we just do not know the scale of their need. The UN says 5.5 million people are short of food;
UN food stocks within Afghanistan are now down to just two weeks' supply (9,000 tons).

"We just don't know how many people may die if the bombing is not suspended and the aid effort assured. We do know that the Afghans are an extremely resilient people who will do all that it takes to survive. But if nothing changes, we fear there will be huge loss of life and unspeakable suffering this winter," Offenheiser said.

* Islamic Relief, Christian Aid, CAFOD, ActionAid and Tear Fund

Frequently Asked Questions about the call for a pause in bombing.