UN Special Envoy to Afghanistan can't overstate her concern about the situation
every major trend -- politics, security, the peace process, the economy, the humanitarian emergency and tackling COVID-19 -- is either “negative or stagnant.”
“More than 50 of Afghanistan’s 370 districts have fallen since the beginning of May,” the U.N. envoy said. “Most districts that have been taken surround provincial capitals, suggesting that the Taliban are positioning themselves to try and take these capitals once foreign forces are fully withdrawn.”
She also pointed to a 29% increase in civilian casualties in the first quarter of 2021 compared to the same period last year, including a 37% rise in casualties among women and a 23% increase among children.