Red Cross workers leave Afghanistan

GENEVA, SEPT. 16. All workers with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Afghanistan left the country today for Pakistan, the ICRC said in Geneva.

The ICRC was withdrawing personnel as a precautionary measure until it received new security guarantees from the Afghan authorities. The head of the ICRC operations in Afghanistan, Mr. Olivier Duerr, said the Red Cross hoped to return to the country as soon as possible. The ICRC will direct its humanitarian activities in Afghanistan from Pakistan. He said the Afghan population needed humanitarian aid and stressed that the Red Cross would do everything to help. Some 1,000 local employees of the ICRC would continue to keep hospitals, ambulances and first- aid posts working.

- DPA

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Section  : International
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