KABUL - UNAMA wishes to provide some clarity on internal safety and security assessments conducted by the United Nations for the purposes of its operations in Afghanistan.

This is necessary following mischaracterisation in the media of UN security assessments.

UNAMA regularly analyses the threat environment in which UN staff and other humanitarian entities in Afghanistan live and work.

A number of factors, Armed Conflict, Terrorism, Crime, Civil Unrest and Natural Hazards, are considered for the threat assessments to provide a general picture of the threat environment in any given area; they do not indicate specific threats, level of control by parties to the conflict or their numbers.

The UN regularly conducts work in the field and has offices across Afghanistan. The presence of staff and the nature of their work is reviewed on a regular basis taking into account a variety of factors.

UNAMA has not issued any public report on its security assessment within Afghanistan and does not place internal security assessment material in to the public domain.

The UN’s position on security as it pertains to the safety and security of UN and other humanitarian staff is set out in the Secretary-General’s quarterly reports on Afghanistan.