The United Nations is to pull its non-essential foreign staff out of Afghanistan after a deadly Taliban attack on a guesthouse for UN workers that killed 5 UN workers. The UN has about 5,600 staff in Afghanistan, about 80 percent of whom are Afghans, and the relocations will affect around 12 percent of total deployment.

United Nations has total of 1100 foreigners in Afghanistan and about 600 expatriate staff will be temporarily relocated either within Afghanistan or abroad.

UN spokesman Dan McNorton said:

Around 600 non-Afghan staff will be temporarily relocated. The only people who will remain are regarded as essential staff. This is to ensure the safety of all our staff in Afghanistan. Most of the 600 would leave the country but a few could be relocated in Afghanistan.

The decision would be reviewed regularly and was expected to be effective for “a number of weeks while additional security is being put in place,” McNorton said. Related article: Iraq model for Afghanistan

The UN insists it remains committed to its work in the country, but its senior officials have complained of being increasingly treated as a soft target. In a statement UN said,

Every effort will be made to minimize disruption to our activities while these additional security steps are being taken.

460 international troops working as part of NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) have been killed so far this year in Afghanistan.