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| Africa Horn |
| Relief Worker Attacks in Afghanistan, Somalia Prompt Aid Cuts |
| 2008-07-29 |
| (Bloomberg) -- Attacks on aid workers are forcing humanitarian groups to curtail operations in Afghanistan, Somalia, Sri Lanka and other war-torn countries, and relief agencies say they may have to make wider cuts. Killings, kidnappings and violence against aid workers have more than doubled in the past five years, according to a draft of a report to be published by London-based Overseas Development Institute in the next three months. The average annual number of incidents rose to 76 from 2003 through 2007, compared with 35 in the previous five-year period. For the first time, humanitarian workers are being specifically targeted, said Nan Dale, the U.S. executive director for Paris-based Action Against Hunger/Action Contre la Faim, which had two French workers kidnapped in Afghanistan on July 18. ``It's a terrible period in our history,'' Dale said in an interview in New York. ``We're hardly the only agency.'' |
| Posted by:Fred |