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More funding needed for Afghanistan |
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Saturday, 28 December 2002 |
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A lack of adequate fundingin Afghanistan could put at risk the planned return of over 1.5 million people displaced by years of fighting, a senior UN official has indicated. Addressing a Dec. 19 news conference in Geneva, the top official of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Afghanistan, Filippo Grandi, stressed that "immediate progress in development and reconstruction as well as better security [are] key to the success of the international effort to put Afghanistan back on track."
Mr. Grandi said that donors must remain focused on developing Afghanistan to ensure that the repatriation over the next few years of more than 4 million Afghans still outside their homeland remains sustainable. Mr. Grandi was speaking upon his return from a meeting of the Afghanistan Support Group in Oslo, where donors pledged $1 billion in aid for next year. UNCHR has indicated that it needs $195 million to help 1.2 million refugees to return home mainly from Iran and Pakistan. It will also assist some 300,000 internally displaced people in going back to their original communities. |
