Irish aid agency Concern sent two aid workers into Afghanistan this morning despite overnight US-led military strikes in the country.
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An Afghan worker lifts a bag of wheat donated in Peshawar
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However, a spokesman told
ireland.com
there was "no need for anybody to worry" as its humanitarian workers were returning to the country's northeast, which is protected by the Northern Alliance.
Mr Macdara Doyle said the workers were part of an effort to establish a secure and stable aid route from Tajikistan in anticipation of winter famine in the area.
Concern has been based in the northeastern town of Saizabad since 1988, providing aid to about 170,000 Afghans, said Mr Doyle. A survey carried out by the agency before the September 11th attacks predicted famine in the region by mid-November.
Concern has estimated that 1,000 tonnes of food per month will need to be delivered to the region.
Over the past week, Mr Doyle said aid workers had only managed to get 400-500 tonnes of aid into the area and warned that by mid-November the region would be inaccessible due to snow and the mountainous terrain.
He said about 14 of its expatriate workers, along with all other expatriate aid workers, had been evacuated in late September when the Taliban announced it could no longer guarantee their safety.
He said they had not returned to Ireland but had moved into neighbouring Islamabad, Peshawar and the Tajikistan capital Dushambe.
Mr Doyle said since then 70 local Afghan Concern staff had remained in the country to distribute food, maintaining daily phone contact with the organisation.
He said Concern was not anticipating any attack in the area, which lies behind the Northern Alliance frontline, and assured its workers’ families that "the area we’re working in is fine".