Today over 1,200 non-governmental organisations (NGOs), 300 of them international, are working in Afghanistan. That represents some 25,000 to 30,000 international and Afghan workers.⁽¹⁾ Since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, the international community has spent several billion euros in humanitarian aid. The European Union, for example, through its European Community Humanitarian aid Office (ECHO), has granted Afghanistan nearly one hundred million euros in aid since 2004. This international aid covers all aspects of society: education, health, the fight against poverty, support to women, reconstruction, mine clearance, rehabilitation, etc.

Above and beyond purely humanitarian aid, the international community has been attempting to rebuild the country by establishing and supporting national and regional institutions on the one hand, and on the other by combating the Taliban, warlords, drug-traffickers and criminals. However, notwithstanding all that that represents in terms of finance and human resources, it is sad to say that the results are limited.

Although presidential and legislative elections were held in 2004 and 2005, and there has been progress in the democratisation of institutions, we hear of explosions, attacks, battles and deaths. The recent kidnapping of two French aid workers from the NGO Terre d’Enfance is yet another brutal reminder to the international community of the difficulty in running humanitarian projects in these conditions. This raises the question, however, as to how humanitarian action can be maintained, and beyond that, of the involvement of the international community in Afghanistan.