UN says Afghanistan telecoms blackout adds to country's crisis | International

Indrika Ratwatte, the UN's humanitarian coordinator in Afghanistan, said the shutdown, which started Monday, was affecting day-to-day business and the provision of critical aid. "This is another crisis on top of the existing crises -- utterly unnecessary, in that sense, for this kind of interruption to take place -- and the impact is going to be on the lives of Afghan people," he told journalists in Geneva, speaking from Kabul via satellite link-up. After decades of conflict, Afghanistan is one of the world's poorest countries, facing a protracted humanitarian crisis deepened by severe drought, an earthquake a month ago, and the influx of millions of Afghans forced back to the country by neighbours Pakistan and Iran in recent years. Ratwatte...