LONDON: A surge in banditry, crime and random violence is threatening to plunge Afghanistan into anarchy as millions face starvation this winter.

Attacks by bandits, often demobilized soldiers from the many militias that fought in Afghanistan until the war of last autumn, are making it increasingly difficult for aid workers to get to vulnerable, remote villages.

Last week the United Nations released a ‘hunger assessment’ which revealed that six million Afghans were at risk — more than were endangered a year ago.

Analysts in Washington and Europe fear the deteriorating situation threatens the new government in Kabul. For the first time last week the Americans said they would favour extending the UN peacekeeping operation into the provinces.

But aid workers fear that even heavily armed peacekeeping forces would be unable to patrol the most remote regions where the banditry is worst and people most at risk of hunger.

Last week Dominic Nutt, of the British-based Christian Aid, told The Observer newspaper in London about how he had been stopped on a mountain pass in central Ghor province by bandits. They had told him: “Either you give us your car or we will take the next one that comes.” The men, who were heavily armed, had already seized a truck.

Only after the intervention of a former provincial governor did the armed men allow the aid workers to go.

Such attacks are turning parts of Afghanistan into virtual no-go areas for relief workers and government officials. Nutt and his colleagues had been warned by the UN that bandits were operating there but needed to visit a remote village to check on conditions.

UN sources report dozens of robberies over the past few weeks, particularly in the centre, the north and south-west. Since January the UN has documented more than 70 ‘serious incidents’. Some offices have had to be evacuated. Aid workers have been caught in crossfire between warring groups.

According to Lakhdar Brahimi, the most senior UN official dealing with Afghanistan, security has ‘deteriorated seriously’.

There are fears that bandits could become terrorists.

One problem has been the unexpected return of 1.5 million refugees. Much of the aid that has reached Afghanistan in the past year has been spent on coping with the new influx.—Dawn/The Guardian News Service.