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GENEVA / AFGHANISTAN GHAZNI UPDATE
STORY: GENEVA / AFGHANISTAN GHAZNI UPDATE
TRT: 1:31
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 17 AUGUST 2018 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Exterior shot, flags in front of Palais des Nations.
2. Wide shot, United Nations press room.
3. Close up shot, camera filming Laerke at the podium.
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Jens Laerke, spokesperson, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA):
“As of this hour, there is no safe way for civilians or humanitarian workers to enter into Ghazni.”
7. Med shot, journalist.
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Jens Laerke, spokesperson, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA):
“One of the main reasons for that is that there are IEDs and mines on the way. We do have capacity to actually spot and map where these mines are, but we do not have the capacity to remove them. That is the responsibility and within the capacity of the national government to do so.”
9. Med shot, journalists.
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Jens Laerke, spokesperson, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA):
“We estimate that there are some 200-250 civilian casualties, according to the latest unverified numbers.”
11. Med shot, journalists.
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Jens Laerke, spokesperson, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA):
“We expect that there will be a very big need for psycho-social support amongst the residents including for children, there are reports of unaccompanied minors turning up at the hospital, looking for their families.”
13. Close up, journalist.
14. Med shot, speakers at podium.
15. Med shot, journalist.
United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned today that the city of Ghazni in Afghanistan is still too dangerous for aid workers to reach, after a week of intense fighting and reports that traumatized children are turning up at hospitals looking for their parents.
OCHA spokesperson Jens Laerke said “As of this hour, there is no safe way for civilians or humanitarian workers to enter into Ghazni,” adding that hundreds of civilians are believed to have died since last Friday, in clashes between Taliban fighters and pro-Government forces.
Laerke explained that “one of the main reasons for that is that there are IEDs and mines on the way. We do have capacity to actually spot and map where these mines are, but we do not have the capacity to remove them. That is the responsibility and within the capacity of the national government to do so.”
Citing information from the Afghanistan Red Cross Laerke said “we estimate that there are some 200-250 civilian casualties, according to the latest unverified numbers.”
Ghazni, in the east of Afghanistan, is one of the country’s largest cities and home to around 270,000 people.
It is the latest place to be affected by an uptick in violence in Afghanistan, where 80 so-called conflict incidents were recorded daily between July and September 2017 – the highest number in six years – the UN agency has reported.
Although Taliban fighters have been largely driven out of Ghazni city centre after last week’s attacks, house-to-house “clearing operations” are ongoing, according to OCHA. Amid continuing insecurity, the remaining 25 to 30 aid organizations still in the city “have basically hunkered down”, the agency’s spokesperson told journalists in Geneva. In the meantime, fighting has reportedly moved to the outskirts of the city, with Taliban fighters slowly withdrawing towards surrounding villages.
Last year also saw 16 district administrative centres attacked and taken over by the Taliban, OCHA said.
Earlier this week, UN Secretary-General António Guterres urged warring parties in Afghanistan to step up efforts towards achieving peace following deadly fighting in Ghazni, after condemning a “heinous” suicide bombing that killed dozens of students – many of them teenagers - at an education centre in the capital, Kabul.
In a bid to assess needs in Ghazni, OCHA has asked local aid workers still in the city to gather information on the number of people requiring help. Key priorities include restoring the city’s public services. Parts of the water system are functioning again, according to the authorities, and UN Children’s Fund UNICEF is preparing to dispatch chlorine to flush network clean. Mobile phone networks are also gradually being restored but electricity in the city is reportedly still largely unavailable, OCHA said in a statement.
“We expect that there will be a very big need for psycho-social support amongst the residents including for children,” Laerke said. “There are reports of unaccompanied minors turning up at the hospital, looking for their families.”
According to OCHA, 3.3 million Afghans are in need of humanitarian assistance, and there are growing signs that what was once a low-intensity conflict has now escalated into a war, according to a UN strategic review.
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