Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Finnish organizations closely follow the security situation in Afghanistan

Ten people working in Afghanistan for the International Assistance Mission (IAM), a Christian aid association, were killed last week.

Several of those killed were doctors who were carrying out health care related tasks in Northeast Afghanistan. One victim’s spouse is Finnish.

The killings have an indirect effect also on Finnish mission organizations, which carry out work in Afghanistan and receive support for their development cooperation efforts from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. Some of these organizations work under the IAM’s flag, as the association is registered in Afghanistan and has operated there for over 40 years.

In total, ten Finnish NGOs have activities in Afghanistan. Together with the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, they follow Afghanistan’s security situation closely. Security issues were considered, for instance, at a meeting, arranged by the Ministry in June, in which all ten NGOs took part.

“It is still premature to estimate what consequences the Taleban’s strike will have on aid workers. Each NGO naturally makes its own decisions,” Kimmo Pulkkinen, interim chargé d’affaires of the Finnish Embassy in Kabul, stated when interviewed for the radio news by YLE, the Finnish Broadcasting Company.

International experts working in Afghanistan consider the strike to indicate a change in the Taleban’s tactics: aside from armed security units, strikes are focusing on civilian targets and humanitarian actors.

 
More information:

Website of the Foreign Ministry (in Finnish)(Link to another website.)