U.N. urges protection for aides in Afghanistan as fighting escalates

KABUL, Afghanistan — The United Nations urged all sides of the Afghan conflict to protect aid workers delivering critical assistance to a population caught in relentless violence.

Afghanistan remains among the three most dangerous countries for aid workers, and a recent escalation in violence has often blocked important relief from reaching civilians.

The appeal Saturday came as the Afghan government and aid agencies began delivering assistance to Ghazni, a city 90 miles south of the capital, Kabul, which was under a Taliban siege for several days. Hospitals were overwhelmed with casualties, and the water supply, electricity and telecoms were shut down.

“My plea to the Taliban, to everybody engaged in violence in this country, is please respect the work of aid agencies,” Toby Lanzer, the United Nations’ humanitarian coordinator in Afghanistan, said on a visit to a Kabul hospital packed with the wounded from Ghazni and from a suicide bombing in the capital last week.

“This year so far, we have had 23 aid workers killed. We have had 37 aid workers seriously injured. We have had 74 aid workers abducted. It is a disgrace,” he said.

Civilians have borne the brunt of the most recent conflict in Afghanistan, which began with the U.S. invasion in 2001.

Since 2009, when the United Nations began recording civilian casualties, more than 30,000 Afghan civilians have been killed and more than 55,000 have been wounded.

Adding to the woes of Afghan civilians this year is a drought affecting two-thirds of the country. The United Nations says more than 2 million people could face food shortages. The west of the country is the worst hit, with more than 20,000 people already displaced from two provinces.

Officials are still assessing the damage in Ghazni after the dayslong Taliban assault. With telecom networks down for most of the five days of fighting, information has trickled out sparsely.

Casualty figures remain uncertain; an official said about 70 civilians, 155 members of the security forces and more than 400 Taliban insurgents were killed. Local residents have also claimed that Afghan and U.S. airstrikes meant to try to push back the Taliban have caused civilian casualties.