Afghanistan | The latest developments in the troubled country

Defence Redefined

20/09/2020

Blood continues to flow in Afghanistan after at least 30 civilians were killed following a twin airstrike on a Taliban base in the northeastern Afghan province of Kunduz, a Sputnik correspondent reported yesterday.

“One airstrike was carried out in the Nikpai area of the Khanabad district of Kunduz, and when people gathered in the area another attack took place in which up to 30 civilians were killed and wounded,” an eyewitness told Sputnik.

Also read: Afghanistan | Non-Combatant casualties continue to increase

Attacks on civilians are frequent in Afghanistan, a country which has been plagued for 19 years by hostilities between the Taliban and government forces backed by the US coalition forces.  

A recent UN Security Council resolution unanimously adopted a resolution on Tuesday, 15 September 2020, welcoming the start of negotiations between the Afghan representatives and the Taliban, encouraging the warring parties to engage in good faith and and aim for a permanent cease-fire and political settlement to their 19-year conflict.

The resolution, which also extended the U.N. political mission in Afghanistan into next September, also strongly encourages the parties “to continue pursuing confidence-building measures including additional reductions in violence”.

The Security Council called for women and young people to be included in peace negotiations and underlined “that the economic, social, political and development gains made in the last 19 years, including in the field of human rights, especially the rights of women, children and minorities, must be protected and built upon.”

Germany’s U.N. Ambassador Christoph Heusgen, who drafted the resolution with Indonesia, called the weekend’s start of negotiations in Qatar “a major achievement which we have all been waiting for for many years.”

With information from: CNA, Sputnik, AP

*Archive photo © Rahmat Gul/AP

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