News (Consolidated) - UNSOM

KABUL - The United Nations Environment Programme is promoting the importance of environmental protection in Afghanistan. As part of a series of events leading up to World Environment Day on 5 June 2009, UNEP is highlighting climate change and the broader consequences of environmental change, and…

KABUL - Afghanistan will see its best wheat harvest in 32 years, according to a report released today by the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock and the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Estimates suggest overall cereal production will rise to 6.3 million tons in 2009, up…

3 June 2009 - Agriculture in Afghanistan needs to grow at a minimum of five per cent a year over the next decade for the country to make a dent in rural poverty and attain food security. While the vast majority of Afghans depend on agriculture for a living, only a little over 10 per cent of the…

3 June 2009 - Some 12,000 households in nine provinces in northern and north-eastern Afghanistan have been affected by floods since April, according to the latest United Nations-backed assessments. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported today that another round of…

4 June 2009 - Afghanistan has been marking World Environment Day with events throughout this week. Today, it was the turn of students at Kabul University to celebrate the occasion with a day-long function that included presentations, speeches, and theatrical performances to create awareness on the…

NEW YORK - The top United Nations human rights official, highlighting the suffering of civilians caught up in armed conflict, has urged the Human Rights Council to protect this vulnerable group. “The condition of civilians in armed conflict continues to cause grave alarm,” UN High Commissioner for…

KABUL - The World Bank in Afghanistan has announced a new assistance strategy for the country. Ensuring the effectiveness of sound national programmes that deliver services equitably and pooling donor resources are vital to improve the effectiveness with which aid is utilized in Afghanistan, says…

KABUL - Nearly 10,000 people who fled fighting and drought conditions eight years ago in the north and west of Afghanistan are heading back home. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is helping the first group of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) of 84 families leave the Zari…

8 June 2009 - The office of the United Nations agriculture agency was attacked in northern Afghanistan over the weekend, with a rocket-propelled grenade having been fired at the compound. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) office in the city of Kunduz was attacked by six armed men at around…

KABUL - The number of people calling Afghanistan’s election hotline is growing everyday, with about 25,000 Afghans ringing the free number each week. Afghanistan’s Independent Election Commission set up the dedicated call centre to answer questions on the forthcoming elections from people across the…

9 June 2009 - A total of fifty seven candidates from more than 3,000 for this year’s elections in Afghanistan have been disqualified from taking part in the polls. The Electoral Complaints Commission made the announcement today on the candidates who do not meet the qualification requirements for the…

9 June 2009 - It’s not just Afghanistan’s police and elections officials who are being trained for the forthcoming presidential and provincial elections. The country’s budding journalists, too, are sharpening their pens – and, possibly, their rhetoric – in anticipation of the historic 20 August…