ASSOCIATED PRESS
ISLAMABAD,
Pakistan (AP) -- Thousands of Afghans, fleeing a bitter civil
war in northern Afghanistan, have been hit by diseases, including
measles and malaria, an international aid group said Monday.
The Swedish
Committee for Afghanistan, a key international aid group operating
in Afghanistan's war-ravaged northern region, issued a statement
in neighboring Pakistan saying hundreds of Afghan children died
of measles earlier this year.
A fresh outbreak
of measles has been reported among the estimated 80,000 Afghans
fleeing fighting in the northern Takhar province, according to
the statement.
Refugees also
are suffering from malaria, diarrhea and malnutrition because
of polluted water and poor sanitation, it said.
The Taliban,
in a string of victories in recent weeks, captured most of Takhar
province, located on Afghanistan's northern frontier with the
Central Asian state of Tajikistan. But the opposition said Sunday
it had taken back two strategic districts.
Emergency
medical supplies have been sent to Faizabad, the opposition-controlled
capital of northeastern Badakhshan province, the Swedish Committee
statement said. The group operates 40 clinics in the provinces
of Takhar, Badakhshan, Kunduz and Baghlan.
The Swedish
Committee said it will begin vaccinating children against measles.
It hopes to reach about 30,000 children.
More than
900 people, mostly children, died in a measles epidemic in northern
Afghanistan last winter, the World Health Organization reported.
The Taliban
Deputy Health Minister Sher Abbas Stanikzai asked the international
community on Monday to help fight diseases in Afghanistan.
The Taliban
and the United Nations have launched a program to combat malaria,
measles and diarrhea, he told reporters in the Afghan capital
Kabul.
"But
we need more foreign assistance to fight these diseases effectively,"
he said.
Afghanistan,
devastated by 21 years of civil war, is one of the world's poorest
countries.
The Taliban
rule more than 95 percent of Afghanistan, which is roughly the
size of Texas. They are sharply criticized for their strict interpretation
of Islam.
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