Taliban Orders Aid Agencies to Shut Down

The Taliban on Sunday ordered private foreign aid agencies to close down for defying an order to move to a derelict college building with no water or power.

It was the latest setback for an aid operation that has frequently clashed with the Islamic militia, whose restrictions on women have angered Western donors and led to sporadic tension with the United Nations umbrella organization.

The Taliban had set Sunday as the deadline for about 35 nongovernmental organizations with 100 foreign staff members to agree to its order that they move to the building from residential premises in a suburb of the battered Afghan capital.

Aid sources said that the majority of the foreign aid community had already left and that there were only a few token staff members left.

Aid workers said they feared their departure might cause a humanitarian disaster in a city where at least 400,000 people, or a third of the population, benefit from food, water, shelter and medical programs.