Faryab province. Emergency assistance to families whose homes and belongings were destroyed by heavy floods in May 2006 − While the ICRC in Afghanistan stopped its relief activities in 2003, it continues to provide emergency food and non-food items to victims displaced by fighting and living without shelter, as well as to those severely affected by natural disasters, jointly with the Afghan Red Crescent Society (ARCS). There is the ever-present risk that fighting will escalate as the parties push to strengthen their negotiating positions, and the ongoing cycle of natural disasters can begin again without warning. The Afghan people have endured enormous hardship and the ICRC remains ready and able to assist them, regardless of how the conflict evolves.