UN Security Council condemns Taliban announcement of spring offensive

The UN Security Council has condemned the announcement by the Taliban of a spring offensive, saying it will only result in more unnecessary suffering and destruction for the Afghan people.

In a press statement on the Taliban Offensive, members ofthe 15-nation Council said they recognised the Afghan people’s strong desirefor sustainable peace in Afghanistan. They underscored that calls for morefighting will not advance the goal of making a sustainable peace.

   

“The members of the Security Council condemned theannouncement by the Taliban of a spring offensive, which will only result inmore unnecessary suffering and destruction for the Afghan people,” thepress statement said.

The Taliban on Friday announced their annual springoffensive, which comes as American and Afghan politicians try to negotiate fora peace settlement with the terror group.

Operation Fath, which means “victory” in Arabic,will be conducted across Afghanistan with the aim of “eradicatingoccupation” and “cleansing our Muslim homeland from invasion andcorruption”, the Taliban said in a statement.

The annual spring offensive traditionally marks the start ofthe so-called fighting season. “Our Jihadi obligation has not yetended,” the Taliban said.

The members of the Security Council called on all parties tothe conflict to seize the opportunity to begin an inclusive intra-Afghandialogue and negotiations that result in a political settlement.

They reiterated the importance of an inclusive Afghan-ledand-owned peace process for the long-term prosperity and stability ofAfghanistan, and expressed their full support for the Afghan Government’sefforts to that end.

 The Council membersreiterated that, as mandated by the Security Council, the United NationsAssistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) and the Special Representative of theSecretary-General stand ready to provide their good offices to support theAfghan-led and Afghan-owned peace process, if requested by and in closeconsultation with the Afghan Government.

A United Nations report released by the UN AssistanceMission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) and the UN Human Rights Office in February thisyear said more civilians were killed in the Afghan conflict last year than atany time since records have been kept.

The UN has said that Afghanistan suffered the highest numberof civilians deaths in 2018 due to fighting and violence, a record described as”deeply disturbing and wholly unacceptable.”

Fighting and brutal violence claimed exactly 3,804 civilianlives in 2018 – including 927 children, another tragic record for the year –according to the data carefully collected by the UN.  The number represents an increase of 11 percent compared to 2017. In addition, 7,189 people were injured in 2018, 5 percent more than in the previous year.

Overall, close to two thirds of the civilian casualties werecaused by armed opposition groups, including the Taliban, Islamic State andother undetermined groups. However, civilians were also collateral victims ofpro-Government forces (including the Afghan military and international forces)responsible for close to one quarter of all civilian casualties.

The report is the UN’s 10th annual report documenting theplight of civilians in the Afghan conflict: in a decade, more than 32,000civilians have been killed and around 60,000 have been injured. The conflict,which has now gone on for a total of four decades, has claimed thousands andthousands more lives, it said.

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