In just one day this autumn, five security warnings dropped into the mail boxes of aid workers in Afghanistan, providing a salutary picture of working conditions in the country. The main dangers were:
- Illegal checkpoints had been established in the capital, Kabul, operated by men looking for aid workers and government employees
- Taliban elements were stopping private vehicles in the central province of Wardak, seeking election staff, government and international aid workers
- A rocket was fired at a non- government organisation (NGO) compound in the western province of Badghis after a series of warning letters
- A $3,000 ransom was being offered for any foreigner killed in Badghis
- Three vehicles – believed to be car bombs – are heading toward the western city of Herat
- A bomb had exploded at a girls’ school sponsored by an NGO
This was not an extraordinary day.
