UN team assesses humanitarian situation in Zabul province

27 May 2015

UN team assesses humanitarian situation in Zabul province

KANDAHAR - A joint team led by UNAMA’s southern regional officials visited Qalat, the capital of Afghanistan’s Zabul province, to assess the humanitarian and security situation in the aftermath of recent military activity.

Briefing the UN team in Zabul’s capital, located 135 kilometres east of Kandahar, Provincial Governor Mohammad Ashraf Nasari said basic services of health, education and shelter are being provided to displaced families. He asked for assistance from the UN, particularly the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the United Nations Children’s Fund, to provide tents for thousands of students currently studying in the open, and support to other displaced people.

Zabul’s Director of Education, Rahimullah Lodin, told the UN team that 80 per cent of the schools in the province lack basic facilities, including water and sanitation. The UN team visited Shaikh Mati Baba High School in Qalat and observed that more than 3,000 students, displaced from across the province, are studying without desks, chairs and other basic educational infrastructure.

UNAMA officials, chairing the regional team, organised and led the assessment mission and are planning to monitor and follow up on the situation in Zabul. The head of UNAMA’s Kandahar’s field office, Simon Hermes, along with the other members of the team, distributed books and stationary to the displaced students, and assured the Provincial Governor that the UN will respond to the assistance needs within its capacity.

UNAMA is mandated to support the Afghan Government and relevant international and local non-governmental organizations to assist in the full implementation of the fundamental freedoms and human rights provisions of the Afghan Constitution and international treaties to which Afghanistan is a State party.