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Press Release

UNICEF Rushes Relief Supplies to Central Asia
In Response to Growing Crisis

First of Six Humanitarian Relief Flights Heads to Turkmenistan

GENEVA / NEW YORK, 21 September 2001 - The United Nations Children's Fund is airlifting urgently needed relief supplies into the Afghanistan region this weekend in the first of six planned relief flights aimed at easing the region's ongoing humanitarian crisis.

The first flight, carrying more than $130,000 of critical medical supplies, tarps, water purification tablets and other relief items, departs from UNICEF's supply hub in Copenhagen this weekend, headed for Turkmenistan. Turkmenistan sits on the northwest border of Afghanistan and is one of four countries in which UNICEF is positioning supplies should large numbers of Afghans seek refuge across national borders.

The shipment includes enough basic medical supplies to serve a population of 100,000 people for three months.

"The humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan has been developing for a long time," said Carol Bellamy, Executive Director of UNICEF. "Three years of drought, more than 20 years of war, and the ongoing displacement of 1 million people is now being compounded by the onset of winter. It's going to take a lot to keep Afghan children alive through the next several months."

Bellamy added that some 70 per cent of the population most at risk - as many as 7.5 million people overall - are children and women. Nearly 20 per cent are children under five.

Two Afghan children waiting to receive food in one of the camps for internally displaced persons about 15 kilometers west of the Herat city . Press releases on the Afghanistan crisis

UNICEF said it has more than $3 million worth of relief supplies in the pipeline to help children in urgent need of humanitarian support in Afghanistan and neighboring countries. The supplies will be shipped over the next several days as the situation requires. Additional emergency items valued at $750,000 have been pre-positioned in parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan. UNICEF's overall winterization campaign for Afghan children and women is expected to cost $14 million.

Among the items in the 33-tonne shipment this weekend:

• Emergency medical supplies sufficient to help 100,000 people for 3 months
• 26,000 family-size water containers
• 100,000 sachets of oral re-hydration salts to combat diarrheal disease
  150,000 water purification tablets
• tarpaulin and rope for temporary shelters

UNICEF said these commitments were just the beginning of its support for the humanitarian relief effort, which UNICEF staff in the region have been planning for several months in anticipation of a difficult winter. Drought, hunger and disease remain the greatest challenges - now made more difficult by access problems and shifting populations.

Bellamy said UNICEF is working closely with other UN agencies and aid organizations to provide relief, especially in light of significant movements of population over the last few days. She said that UNICEF would focus its energies and resources on keeping children alive and well, including immunization efforts, nutritional supplements, basic medical supplies, clean water and emergency education materials for the displaced.

As with all other international humanitarian organizations, UNICEF has withdrawn its international staff from Afghanistan. They are presently directing the UNICEF relief effort from Islamabad. UNICEF's caring and dedicated national staff of 70 is still operating inside Afghanistan and is coordinating with the national staffs of other UN agencies.

* * *

For further information, please contact:

Alfred Ironside, UNICEF Media, New York (1-212) 326-7261
e-mail: aironside@unicef.org
Gordon Weiss, UNICEF Media, Islamabad (UNICEF Afghanistan)
(92-300) 856-6235
Wivina Belmonte, UNICEF Media, Geneva (41-22) 909-5509
wbelmonte@unicef.org

Speeches and Press releases on Afghanistan and region

• Ali makes rounds of programmes in Kabul 18 Nov
• Muhummad Ali visit Kabul to lend support 17 Nov
• Afghanistan is one of worst places in the world to be pregnant 26 Oct
• America's Fund for Afghan Children donates $750,000 for measles 15 October
• UNICEF praises Afghanistan for accepting land mine treaty 29 July
• Children return in droves to school, survey shows 11 July
• New government hailed, investment in children urged 20 June
• Afghanistan determined to eradicate polio 15 April
• Tent-school opens at quake site 2 April
• UNICEF rushes to aid quake survivors 27 March
• Afghanistan's schools triumphantly open 22 March
• Across borders, a commitment to the future 15 March
• Back to school campaign picks up speed 12 March 2002
• In Afghanistan, huge back-to-school drive kicks off Wed, 20 February 2002
• Speech to the UN Conference in Tokyo Monday, 22 Jan 2002
• Japan's gift bolsters child health in region Friday, 21 Dec 2001)
• Immunization drive against birth defects in Central Asia hailed (Wed. 28 Nov. 2001)
• Afghan children wage battle of fear vs. hunger, illness, and cold (Fri. 16 Nov 2001)
• UNICEF warns winter and war still threat to Afghan children (Wed. 14 Nov.2001)
• Mules haul relief supplies for children in Afghanistan (1 Oct. 2001)
• UNICEF vows renewed drive to protect rights of all children (Sept. 28 2001)
• More than $35 million needed for Afghan children (28 Sept, 2001)
• Afghanistan woes deepen for children and women (25 Sept. 2001)
• Relief flights bring supplies to central Asia (Friday, 21 Sept. 2001)