Fewer attacks on aid agencies in Afghanistan
IRIN reports:
Humanitarian agencies are seeing promising signs of regaining space and acceptance from Taliban insurgents while attacks against NGO workers have reduced significantly over the past six months.
Up to 1,200 security incidents were recorded in June - more than in any month since the fall of the Taliban - but attacks on NGOs by armed opposition groups in the first half of 2010 were 35 percent lower than in 2008-2009, according to the Afghanistan NGO Safety Office (ANSO).
ANSO, which provides free safety analysis and advice to member NGOs, said attacks on NGOs had diminished due to their own enhanced security measures, and also because the insurgents appear to have stopped targeting NGOs.
“At a strategic level the armed opposition are in many cases acting more like a government in waiting and so see a convergence of interests in maintaining NGO services.
