A top UN's refugee agency official said security has deteriorated in Afghanistan to the extent that UN employees cannot visit half of the country.
The agency has to rely on local staff or Afghan partner organisations to reach tens of thousands of displaced people and returning refugees it is trying to aid, said UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres.
"There was a worsening security situation in the recent past," he told reporters in Geneva. "Access of our international staff to the territory is now limited to about 50 percent."
Last month the United Nations announced it had relocated several foreign employees from the southern city of Kandahar to Kabul and told more than 200 Afghan workers to stay home after security threats.
Guterres said the agency has "completely reshaped" its operations in Afghanistan in response to growing threats, including by moving administrative staff to its regional office in Bangkok and investing in security hardware.
But he added that more barbed wire, blast walls and armed guards alone wouldn't be effective unless the local population could be convinced that agencies such as UNHCR are independent from US-led international military presence in the country.
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