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Gunmen in Northern Afghanistan Kill 9 Local Aid Workers Gunmen in Northern Afghanistan Kill 9 Local Aid Workers
(about 5 hours later)
KABUL, Afghanistan — Gunmen barged into the compound of an aid agency in northern Afghanistan early Tuesday, killing nine workers before fleeing, officials of the organization said. KABUL, Afghanistan — Gunmen barged into the compound of an aid agency in northern Afghanistan early Tuesday, killing nine workers before fleeing, officials said.
The attack in the Zari district of Balkh Province targeted a house used as an office as well as a residence by People in Need, a Czech charity that has delivered educational, health and agricultural services in the area for more than a decade. It was the worst attack on aid workers this year, in which there has already been an increase in such episodes, alarming United Nations officials and charities. Many groups had already been curtailing their activities in Afghanistan.
Ross Hollister, the country director for the group, said assailants entered the compound at 1:30 a.m. He said the victims were two drivers, two guards and five staff members carrying out projects for the National Solidarity Program, an Afghan government project popular in rural areas throughout the country. All the victims were Afghans. So far this year, at least 26 aid workers have been killed, 17 wounded and 40 abducted, according to the Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief and Development, or Acbar, an Afghan group that advocates for many of the several thousand aid organizations here. Even before the increase, Afghanistan has had the worst record worldwide for attacks on aid workers.
“We did not receive any strong threats before. We were well received in the community,” Mr. Hollister said. The organization has suspended all its activities in the country, he said. Violence from the Taliban insurgency this year has spread to areas of the north and northeast that aid workers had long considered safe to work in, since most had pulled out of traditional conflict zones in the east and south.
No one claimed responsibility for the attack, but it came amid an intensifying Taliban offensive across Afghanistan. Balkh, long considered a safe economic hub in the north, has endured a spike in violence in recent weeks. A Taliban attack on the provincial attorney general’s office in April left 19 people dead and more than 60 wounded. “This most recent attack highlights the challenges aid workers face and the unacceptable sacrifices aid workers make when working in Afghanistan,” said Mark Bowden, the United Nations humanitarian coordinator.
The attack, in the center of Zari District in northern Balkh Province, targeted a house used as office and residential space by People in Need, a Czech charity that has delivered educational, health and agricultural services in the area for more than a decade.
Ross Hollister, the country director for the group, said gunmen entered the compound around 1:30 a.m. He said the victims were all Afghans: two drivers, two guards and five staff members carrying out projects for the National Solidarity Program, an Afghan government initiative popular in rural areas throughout the country.
“We did not receive any strong threats before,” Mr. Hollister said. “We were well received in the community.” The organization has suspended all its activities in the country, he said.
Mr. Hollister said he did not know who was behind the attack. Local police officials blamed the Taliban, but the group has so far not claimed responsibility.
Khalifa Qasim, the landlord who had rented the house to the organization for $200 a month, said most of the victims had been shot in bed. The manager was killed under a desk.
“All the bodies were wrapped in blankets in their beds,” Mr. Qasim said.
Hajji Ghawsuddin, a member of the village development council in Zari, said two of those who were killed were his relatives. One of them, a 40-year-old guard named Israyeel had been shot in the face. Nearly 1,000 people attended the funerals of the two men, he said.
“The gunmen — neighbors were saying there were three of them — climbed over the walls and sprayed bullets at workers who were there,” Mr. Ghawsuddin said. “Two of the workers who hid themselves in a dark room survived.”
The attackers seem to have fled the scene after a brief exchange of fire with the police, who arrived an hour after the shootings, Mr. Qasim said.
The attack came as a Taliban offensive is intensifying across Afghanistan. Balkh, long considered a safe economic hub in the north, has endured a spike in violence in recent weeks. A Taliban attack on the provincial attorney general’s office in April left 19 people dead and more than 60 wounded.
The Zari attack is the third large incident targeting aid workers in recent months. Five workers of Save the Children were abducted in southern Uruzgan Province, and their bodies were found on April 10. In May, eight aid workers were killed in an attack on a Kabul guesthouse, under circumstances that still remain mysterious.
All of this has left aid workers worried about a difficult year ahead.
“There is a real difference from the previous year, an awful and real increase,” said Justine Piquemal, the director of Acbar. “We stay committed, so NGOs will stay to support the Afghan population who is the first to suffer. However, yes, the high violence will impact our work, we have to protect our colleagues.”
The work of charity organizations such as People in Need is central to the National Solidarity Program, which both foreign donors and local Afghans have praised as one of the success stories of a government that has otherwise struggled to establish its reach despite billions of dollars in international aid. Small grants from the program has brought bridges, wells and even hydropower to many far-flung and volatile villages.
The program has managed to mediate the risks by mobilizing local councils, with the help of a network of roughly 30 aid groups who help deliver services and carry out projects. Local ownership has meant that projects were often successful even in places where the insurgents still had a strong grip.
Nevertheless, the National Solidarity Program’s work has come at an enormous toll. Since 2004, nearly 357 people related to the program have been killed, including regional officers, aid workers and local elders braving the threats to associate with a government program, according to documents provided by the agency.
What has made the threat worse in recent years, officials and local elders say, is the increasing criminalization of the insurgency. In the early years of the long war, elders could easily persuade local Taliban commanders to allow a project in their area. But the new generation of militants are more swayed by ransoms and hostage taking, and less so by traditional decision making of local elders, many said.