There is a large number of children and men, no obvious presence of fighting men or military hardware, other than a few guns. There is an informal school functioning so children are occupied. To get access you have to go through a checkpoint of the Northern Alliance. There we saw a large group of well fed, well dressed fighters with some artillery. There are some solid houses as well as herds of cattle and flocks of sheep and goats.
Many people there are better off than people inside Tajikistan in that general area.
This group is more dominated by a military structure. It would be difficult to carry out food distribution direct to the households and to monitor use as distributions would be done by military commanders. However if we were to carry out an assistance programme on the other island, number 13, this would presumably draw people from island nine. Kahane said that he heard reports that a number of families each night were continuing to cross the river and establish themselves on the islands. They told us that even if the Taliban retook all these areas they would be able to return.