The UN envoy to Afghanistan provided a bleak assessment of post-Taliban Afghanistan on Wednesday. According to the officials, the presence of the Islamic State group is evident in all 34 provinces of the nation.
Islamic State group in Afghanistan
Deborah Lyons, the UN Special Representative told the UN Security Council that the response from the Taliban on the Islamic State Khorasan Province or ISKP’s development “appears to rely heavily on extrajudicial detentions and killings” of the ISKP fighters. “This is an area deserving more attention from the international community,” said Lyons. The comment came after ISKP, the Taliban’s ideological foe took responsibility for the blasts. The blast killed one and heavily wound people in Kabul’s Shiite Muslim region.
According to Lyons, the Taliban could not stem ISKP’s growth. “Once limited to a few provinces and the capital, ISKP now seems to be present in nearly all provinces, and increasingly active,” she explained. She also added that the number of attacks by ISKP increased from 60 in 2021 to 334 as of November 2021. Currently, the Taliban is making a genuine effort to show itself as the main authority and government of Afghanistan. However, the Kabul takeover in August this year after an almost two-decades-long war with the western forces was the Taliban’s great victory. Hence, they are keeping up on excluding representatives of the society and reducing the rights of women and girls in the country, citing religion and ideology.
More on the UN envoy’s report
Lyons’ report is also a warning and adds to the possibility of a humanitarian catastrophe. As the winter looms in the nation with draught and a falling economy. Her report is imploring the international community to find answers. Additionally to also fund teachers, healthcare workers, and humanitarian workers in Afghanistan. She stressed that the economic collapse will increase illicit drug, human, and arms trafficking. It can also lead to an alarming rise in unregulated money exchange and help in facilitating terrorism. “These pathologies will first affect Afghanistan. Then they will infect the region,” she added.