NEW DELHI (AlertNet) - Frontline humanitarian services in Afghanistan will not be affected by the United Nation's decision to relocate temporarily 600 of roughly 1,100 international staff due to increased militant attacks, the world body said on Thursday.
The U.N. has decided to pull out some of its expat staff for "a number of weeks" after five foreign U.N. workers were killed by militants in Kabul last week, Dan McNorton, a senior public information officer at the organisation, told AlertNet.
"In light of the events that took place last week, we have to take the security situation seriously," McNorton said in an interview by phone from Kabul, adding the U.N. was sending less critical staff members to safe areas within and outside the country.
"This relocation affects staff in non-frontline positions, such as support staff and others who are not critical to programmes we are running across the country," he said. This could include those doing administrative work, McNorton added.
Most of the staff involved in frontline services were Afghans and would remain in place, he said.
The U.N. mission in Afghanistan has around 5,600 national and international staff working in various activities such as providing relief and recovery services to those affected by years of conflict.
U.N. PLAYS CRITICAL ROLE
The mission played a critical role in organising elections in the country this year, and its agencies are involved in various projects such as distributing food rations, immunisations and developing water and sanitation programmes.
In last week's attack, Taliban suicide bombers hiding explosive vests under police uniforms entered a guest-house used by U.N. staff, killing five foreigners and prompting a security review by many of the international agencies in the country.
McNorton said the relocation affected only 12 percent of the total staff in the country and those who were not essential to the delivery of humanitarian services.
"We would do everything to minimise any distruption on any of our operations across the country and the decision has been made that those staff who are critical remain."
He said that the move was only likely to last a number of weeks until arrangements to beef up security for all staff members were put in place.
On Monday, the U.N. mission in neighbouring Pakistan raised the security threat level for its workers in the northwest of the country, evacuating all foriegn staff involved in non-emergency projects due to increased militant attacks.
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