Afghanistan

The United States voiced optimism Tuesday (25 February) about reaching an accord to end the war in Afghanistan as a partial truce held with the Taliban, warning rival leaders in the Kabul government not to scuttle the “enormous opportunity.” The United States plans to sign an agreement with the Taliban on Saturday in Qatar if the week-long truce holds.

The United Nations reported Saturday the conflict in Afghanistan killed more than 3,400 civilians and injured nearly 7,000 others in 2019. The U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) blamed the Taliban, Islamic State and other militant groups for causing 49% of the deaths, saying pro-government forces, including the U.S.-led coalition, were responsible for 43% deaths.

Though (Ashraf) Ghani was finally declared the winner of the September 28 vote, main challenger Abdullah Abdullah, the country's chief executive officer, has rejected the result, declared himself the winner, and vowed to form his own government … Ghani's vice president, the powerful former warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum, called on his supporters on February 19 to take to the streets to celebrate what he described as a victory for Abdullah.

The agreement for a seven-day "reduction in violence" announced this week after long negotiations between Washington and the jihadists has raised hopes that a comprehensive peace deal could follow. But it is still not clear when the period will begin and Ghani said that the Taliban's sincerity in entering the agreement was unproven.

A report titled "The human cost of reconstruction" by the US Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) — a US government watchdog created to monitor how funds are used in the country — showed that 5,135 people were killed or injured in a period lasting from 2002 to 2018.

With the Syrian war ebbing, several thousand Fatemiyoun fighters (comprised mainly of Afghans from the country's Shi'ite Hazara minority) have returned to their homeland, prompting fears that Iran could mobilize the proxy group to target U.S. interests in neighboring Afghanistan.

The Afghan Taliban’s turbulent negotiations with the United States on a peace deal have ground to a halt over differences on how to reduce insurgent violence. The latest standoff in the peace process, being hosted by Qatar, comes amid a sharp increase in Taliban attacks on U.S.-backed Afghan government forces over the past week despite a very harsh winter.

The number of attacks, detailed in a quarterly inspector general report, highlights once more the disparity between talking points and the reality on the ground.

US forces in Afghanistan dropped a record number of bombs last year, more than at any other time in at least 10 years, according to the US Air Force.

Nearly one million people were on the move in Afghanistan last year, displaced by conflict and disasters or pushed home from neighbouring countries, according to new UN figures.