Could foreign troop surge exacerbate (forværre) aid-vulnerability? – US President Barrack Obama has ordered the deployment of 30.000 additional troops to Afghanistan in 2010
KABUL, 19 January 2010 (IRIN): Thousands of fresh foreign troops arrive in Afghanistan this year, but some prominent aid agencies are voicing concerns that this could lead to the intensification of the conflict, with dire humanitarian consequences.
The civilian death toll has been mounting, and insecurity, attacks on, and intimidation of, aid agencies have also squeezed humanitarian space across the troubled Central Asian country, thus reducing or denying essential services to many vulnerable communities.
– In our experience, every massive increase in troops since 2005 has led to intensification and spreading of the conflict and an increase in civilian casualties, Reto Stocker, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) delegation in Afghanistan, told IRIN.
Over eight years after the Taliban were ousted by a US-led military intervention, the situation in the country has been described as fragile and critical by the UN Secretary-General – a point further emphasized on 18 January with a series of deadly attacks on the centre of Kabul.
President Obama has said the extra 30.000 US troops would help secure areas and create safe environments for development to take place, but the Taliban have vowed to step up their campaign of violence in 2010, and have been doing so even during the customary winter lull in fighting.
Vulnerability
– If the increase in troop numbers means access to conflict areas diminishes further that will exacerbate vulnerability, said Sheilagh Henry, head of field coordination at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
“Should there be a further escalation of armed conflict in 2010,” warned Charlotte Esther Olsen, country director of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), “NRC with the humanitarian community in Afghanistan is concerned that high levels of internal displacement, or flight to neighbouring countries may occur.”
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