KABUL - The UN has warned Tuesday against the absence of humanitarian agencies in the Afghan city of Kunduz, which has been the scene of intense fighting since Taliban militants stormed it last Monday. 

UN spokesman Jens Laerke, said in a press conference in Geneva that while fighting between armed groups and government forces had made access to the northern Afghan city virtually impossible, the recent U.S. airstrikes on a medical facility had left many in Kunduz without a hospital. 

"There are presently no humanitarian agencies left inside Kunduz city," said the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) spokesman. "There is now no functioning trauma-care hospital in the city as it was the only facility of its kind in the whole north-eastern region of the country, serving some 300,000 people in Kunduz alone. So, in Kunduz 300,000 people now are without a hospital."

Saturday's airstrikes in Kunduz in northern Afghanistan killed 22 victims, including staff with the medical aid group Doctors Without Borders (MSF) that operated the clinic.

Noting that aid agencies have been concerned about the continued lack of access in Kunduz, Laerke said the airport in the city was closed to civilian aircrafts on Monday, and there was no road access into the city because of roadside bombs, threat of ambushes, and road blocks, due to ongoing fighting between armed groups and government forces.

Indicating that thousands of people have reportedly fled Kunduz, Laerke added: "An estimated 8,500 families have been displaced in the northeast as a result of the fighting. Identifying and responding to the internally displaced people is a priority, particularly in Takhar province where numbers are reportedly highest." (Agencies)