More than 70 tired aid workers and dependents were evacuated Saturday from the northern opposition-held Afghan city of Mazar-e-Sharif, ravaged by fighting and looting for the last two weeks.
Security in Mazar-e-Sharif deteriorated rapidly when the Islamic Taliban militia began advancing toward the city two weeks ago. Opposition factions began fighting among themselves as looters rampaged.
The International Committee of the Red Cross flew 53 aid workers and their dependents, including nine children, in four flights from Mazar-e-Sharif’s military airport to the Pakistani border city of Peshawar, an ICRC official said.
A United Nations plane also made two flights to evacuate 18 staffers of UN and private relief agencies to Islamabad, Pakistan.
They had been flown Friday from Mazar-e-Sharif to the town of Shiberghan, 78 miles to the west, in an Afghan military helicopter supplied by Gen. Abdul Malik, chief of an ethnic Uzbek opposition faction.
UN officials said the aid workers were relocated because they were non-essential staff or were unable to work normally due to insecurity and looting. Several Red Cross and UN officials were expected to remain in Mazar-e-Sharif.
The Taliban control the southern two-thirds of Afghanistan, where they have imposed a strict brand of Islam that has stanched endemic corruption in many regions but has barred most women from working and deprived girls of even basic education.
