NEW YORK, June 28: Factional rivalry in northern Afghanistan is leading to a rise in attacks on humanitarian aid workers and Afghan civilians, Human Rights Watch said on Wednesday.

The growing insecurity threatens the continued delivery of humanitarian aid and resettlement assistance.

The briefing paper documents recent cases of sexual violence, forcible recruitment, arbitrary detention, ill-treatment, and looting by armed groups in the northern part of Afghanistan.

International humanitarian aid workers have been targeted in several of these attacks, and a number of international non- governmental organizations (NGOS) are now re-evaluating their operations in the North.

“The increase in targeted violence stems directly from the security vacuum in the North,” a Human Rights Watch researcher covering Afghanistan said.

“Now the attacks on aid workers threaten a vital lifeline for local civilians, especially the most vulnerable groups.”

The recent spate of attacks on aid groups includes the gang- rape of an international staff member, the robberies of two NGO offices, and firing on NGO vehicles.

The security vacuum is caused by the competing ambitions of General Abdul Rashid Dostum’s Jumbish forces and General Atta Mohammad’s Jamiat troops, the latter backed by the defence ministry in Kabul.

The two factions have repeatedly fought over territory south of Mazar-e Sharif and narrowly averted an armed conflict in the city itself one month ago, the report said.

In the briefing paper, Human Rights Watch found a pattern of abuses associated with these forces:

* Local commanders of both parties forcibly recruit young men into their forces and extort money from local families seeking to avoid conscription;

* Internally displaced persons (IDP) camps near Mazar have been militarized.

Human Rights Watch gathered reports of forced labour at Jumbish-dominated Camp 65 and ongoing sexual violence in Jamiat- controlled Sakhi camp; and ethnic Pakhtoons, a minority in the North, continue to flee targeted violence in the Jumbish- controlled Shoor Darya Valley.