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The opening
of a key gateway to northern Afghanistan is set to speed up the
delivery of international aid.
The Friendship
Bridge from Uzbekistan is due to open within days.
It will allow
lorries to deliver supplies to more than three million people in
northern Afghanistan.
Aid stockpiled
in Uzbekistan will flow to an estimated 3.4 million people in northern
Afghanistan dependent on outside relief, including about 1.1 million
in refugee camps.
A Foreign Ministry
official says it might take a week before traffic starts rolling
across the bridge to the nearby Afghan city of Mazar-e-Sharif and
elsewhere in the north.
"It's very
important. We will save time," said Ruppa Joshi, a spokesperson
for the UN Children's Fund.
UNICEF's priorities
include items to protect against winter conditions, milk, biscuits
and medicines. Nearly 200,000 blankets are being flown from India
in coming days.
The French military
is reportedly working to reopen the airport at Mazar-e-Sharif, which
could serve as another conduit for humanitarian supplies.
Airlifts would
prove a safer option than land convoys, given reports of Taliban
hold-outs and conflicts among local warlords.
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