Dateline ACT

Afghanistan 08/02

Afghan nomads affected by drought and mines

Geneva, June 20, 2002
Rainer Lang (text), Ali Eroglu (photos)

 "Did you see the people repatriating on Kandahar road?" a foreign visitor who wanted to see the programmes of members of Action by Churches Together (ACT) International in Afghanistan asked when he saw a group of families with their camels walking along the road. He thought that these were refugees returning to their village in Afghanistan.

ACT’s Afghan partners explained that this was a group of Kuchis, Afghan nomads, moving to cooler regions in summer– from the warm winter pastures in the lowlands to the high green fields – from Kandahar and Qalat to Ghazni – with their camels and sheep in search of fresh grass.

The Kuchis are an ethnic minority in Afghanistan with their tribes roaming the country but nobody knows their exact numbers. It is estimated that the Pashtu-speaking nomads with their ancient tribal code make up more than 10 percent of Afghanistan's population. Their main source of income is derived from their flocks of sheep.

Throughout the year the nomads, who tie their small children to donkeys in a way that they can see their faces while traveling, migrate back and forth between rural areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan close to the border of the two countries. The severe drought that has held Afghanistan in its grip for more than four years now, has also had a severe impact on the Kuchis. Many of them have had to sell off entire flocks of sheep simply to survive.

Because the Kuchis are nomadic, criss-crossing the region, they are in extreme danger of stepping on one of the landmines littering the countryside – leftovers of 30 years of war in Afghanistan. With hundreds of square kilometres contaminated, the Mine Action Programme for Afghanistan (MAPA) has had to prioritise their clearance operations: inhabited areas and agricultural land are cleared first, mountains and grazing areas come later. Aid workers say that they have seen sheep grazing in the fields littered with debris from fighting. Children are often among the mine victims, as well as shepherds following their wandering animals.

The latest ACT appeal on Afghanistan ASAF21 was issued in May 2002.

Five Act members continue to be operational in Afghanistan. Norwegian Church Aid (NCA) continues to assist vulnerable groups of returnees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) in different areas of Afghanistan through their local partner network, as well as refugees remaining in the Shalman area in Pakistan. Vulnerable refugees from urban areas in Pakistan also receive support from NCA. Church World Service is assisting some of the most vulnerable families by implementing a housing project in the Shomali Valley situated north of Kabul. Christian Aid continues to focus on the isolated, mountainous province of Ghor, which is one of the poorest and most under-developed parts of Afghanistan and in great need of assistance. Hungarian Interchurch Aid supports Afghan IDPs and the local population in northern Afghanistan. And Middle East Council of Churches helps the IDPs still close to the border with Iran.