Three Aid Workers Killed in Afghanistan, One Killed in Mauritania

Published June 23, 2009 @ 05:35PM PT

Four NGO staff were killed today, including three in Afghanistan and one in Mauritania.

As for Afghanistan, The Age newspaper in Australia describes the attack:

"A remote-controlled roadside bomb tore through a vehicle transporting Afghan aid workers in northern Afghanistan, killing three men, police and the humanitarian group said."

The three men worked for the NGO Development and Humanitarian Services for Afghanistan, providing shelter for returnees and internally displaced persons. They were on their way to a project site, traveling in an unmarked vehicle, when the bomb exploded.

The attack occured in Jawzjan Province. According to the Afghanistan NGO Safety Office, this was the first attack against NGOs in Jawzjan this year.

So far this year, eight humanitarian workers have been killed in Afghanistan.

Reuters provides details about the attack in Mauritania:

"A U.S. aid worker was shot dead by an unidentified gunman in the Mauritanian capital Nouakchott on Tuesday.

Mauritania straddles black and Arab Africa and is an ally of the West in its fight against al Qaeda, which has been increasingly active in northwest Africa and the Sahara desert.

The American, the director of an aid group working in Mauritania, was shot in the head on a street in the center of the usually quiet city. His body was taken from the scene in an ambulance."

This was the first NGO fatality in Mauritania this year. Overall, sixty aid workers have been killed this year.

[Destruction of stockpiled munitions in Jawzjan Province in 2006 - Photo from Halo Trust]

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Author

Michael has worked for NGOs in Afghanistan, across east and central Africa, and Iraq. Prior to going overseas, he worked on a project providing assistance to the United Nations on the application of International Humanitarian Law to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.