The international community should be doing more to aid the reconstruction of southern Afghanistan, Dutch aid minister Bert Koenders says in an interview with Tuesday’s Volkskrant.

While praising the Dutch military efforts in the region ‘soldiers are not aid workers and aid workers are not soldiers,’ he says. ‘The provincial reconstruction team should become more civilian-based. We need experienced aid workers.’
The Netherlands spends some €100m on aid to Afghanistan a year, while the military effort costs between €300m and €500m, the paper said.