HQN is integrated into the larger Afghan Taliban and cooperates with other terrorist organizations operating in the region, including al-Qa’ida and Lashkar e-Tayyiba. In addition, the report was reviewed by Germany, Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF); Slovakia, Migration Office, Department of Documentation and Foreign Cooperation; and by ACCORD, the Austrian Centre for Country of Origin and Asylum Research and Documentation.With 2.7 million refugees as of the end of 2019, Afghanistan was the third largest country of origin of refugees in the world. [xviii] Borhan Osman is an analyst for the Afghanistan Analysts Network (AAN), an independent non-profit policy research organisation headquartered in Kabul which provides analysis on Afghanistan and its surrounding region. The number of civilians killed and injured increased by 29 per cent compared with the first quarter of 2020; this also included increases in both women (up 37 per cent) and child casualties (up 23 per cent).” (UNAMA, April 2021, p. 1). )” [ACLED coded fatalities as 0] (ACLED, 26 January 2021) There are almost 2.5 million registered refugees from Afghanistan. Afghan security forces have been bearing the actual brunt of the situation, while the people in general are becoming the victim of overflow of violence in different parts of the country. […] The organisation could regroup when the pressure on them subsides, but it seems it would need a long time for it to revive its networks, if indeed that is possible.” (AAN, 1 March 2020), “Last December, Afghan and US forces claimed to have meted out a humiliating defeat to ISKP in Nangarhar, its main stronghold in the war-torn country. For information on the security situation in Afghanistan during the period from January 2010 to September 2018, see the following report: ACCORD: Afghanistan: Entwicklung der wirtschaftlichen Situation, der Versorgungs- und Sicherheitslage in Herat, Mazar-e Sharif (Provinz Balkh) und Kabul 2010-2018, 7 December 2018 In addition, the last three months of 2020 marked a 45 per cent increase in civilian casualties in comparison to the same period in 2019, especially from the use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and targeted killings. The government and its ally forces were the cause of 1,490 civilian casualties in 2019; while they have caused 1,249 civilian casualties in 2020 [386 killed and 863 injured]. As of year’s end, the implementation of these plans was underway. In the post-Taliban period, HIG has been ideologically and politically allied with the Taliban insurgents, but HIG fighters sometimes clash with the Taliban over control of territory in HIG’s main centers of activity in provinces to the north and east of Kabul. The group announced two deputies: Mullah Yaqub (son of Mullah Umar) and Sirajuddin Haqqani (operational commander of the Haqqani Network).” (CRS, 19 May 2017, p. 16)[xi], “The Taliban is an umbrella organization comprising loosely connected insurgent groups, including more or less autonomous groups with varying degrees of loyalty to the leadership and the idea of The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. ecoi.net's featured topics offer an overview on selected issues. In light of the increasingly deteriorating security situation in many parts of the country, the violence continues to drive people from their homes in 2018. UNAMA attributed 22 per cent of civilian casualties to Afghan national security forces and one per cent each to international military forces, progovernment armed groups, and undetermined or multiple Pro-Government Forces, respectively.” (UNAMA, February 2021, p. 17). Yet whatever the record of individual units, dissolving the force is bound to have repercussions for security. Policy Department, Directorate -General for External Policies. [ii] The Office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) is a US government body that provides oversight on reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan. The featured topics are presented in the form of excerpts from documents, coming from selected sources. Ousted individuals were reportedly removed owing to complaints from rank and file Taliban concerning deficiencies in logistical and financial support.” (UN Security Council, 30 May 2018, p. 5), “Since the post-2014 U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan, there is little sign that the Taliban’s firepower has waned, or that the group is suffering from battle fatigue. EASO COUNTRY OF ORIGIN INFORMATION REPORT: AFGHANISTAN - SECURITY SITUATION 2.26.3 Recent security trends and impact on the civilian population .....235 2.27 Paktya .....238 This was the first time since it began systematic documentation in 2009 that UNAMA documented an increase in the number of civilian casualties recorded in the fourth quarter compared with the prior quarter. On 28 September 2020, the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) published a Country of Origin Information (COI) report titled ‘Afghanistan, Security Situation’The EASO COI report Afghanistan: Security Situation (2020 update) aims to provide information on the security situation in Afghanistan, which is relevant for the assessment of international protection status determination, including refugee status and subsidiary protection.The security situation in Afghanistan remained volatile during the reference period (1 March 2019 – 30 June 2020), while the conflict continued to be described as one of the deadliest in the world for civilians. Information on immigration & asylum law, including news, jobs and events. Any hope of lucrative investments in Afghanistan quickly evaporated with the deteriorating security situation forcing all major projects to a stop. Afghanistan: Acute Food Insecurity Situation March - May 2021 and Projection for June - November 2021; 01.08.2020 > 30.10.2020 Afghanistan: Acute Food Insecurity Situation August - October 2020 and Projection for November 2020 - March 2021; 01.08.2019 > 31.03.2020 The Afghan National Police, under the Ministry of Interior, has primary responsibility for internal order and for the Afghan Local Police, a community-based self-defense force with no legal ability to arrest or independently investigate crimes. Also, thus far in 2020, the conflict has continued unabated, despite the coronavirus pandemic and the peace process. In February 2020 the U.S. and the Taliban signed an agreement that paved the way for the first direct talks between the Taliban and representatives of the Afghan republic since 2001. 42 documents added in the last two weeks.18,816 documents in total. After the agreement, the Taliban issued a statement declaring that fighting will continue regardless of the deal with the US; in some areas of the country, the group has reportedly intensified attacks against the Afghan National Security Forces. This may lead to non-English language content being quoted. The agreement also obligates the Taliban to commence peace negotiations with the Afghan government and other Afghan power-brokers. The death in 2013 of its original leader, Mullah Umar, was revealed in a July 2015 Taliban announcement. The UNSC regularly publishes reports about their international missions and worldwide developments concerning politics, security, human rights etc. The situation is really concerning for the Kabul administration, that has been striving to sustain its fading authority with an uncertain future ahead. Thousands were freed - however, 400 remained in prison.” (BBC, 14 August 2020)[xv], “The Afghan government said Monday it would not release the remaining 320 Taliban prisoners, stalling peace talks that are set to go ahead in a couple of days. Civilian authorities generally maintained control over the security forces, although security forces occasionally acted independently. 1. Indeed, it has often seemed that the war was the only activity unaffected by Covid-19. Islamic State’s Khorasan Province (ISIS-K), elements of al-Qa’ida, and terrorist groups targeting Pakistan, such as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), continued to use the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region as a safe haven. In addition, there was no agreement by the parties to reduce violence in the first three months of 2021, which could have had a significant positive impact on civilians, as the reduction in violence week had in February 2020.” (UNAMA, April 2021, p. 1), “Anti-Government Elements continued to be responsible for the majority, 61 per cent, of all civilian casualties in the first three months of 2021, while Pro-Government Forces continued to cause approximately one quarter (27 per cent) of the total civilian casualties. On March 18, USFOR-A spokesperson Colonel Sonny Leggett confirmed that the drawdown of U.S. troops was proceeding, but did not specify how many had already been withdrawn or how many remained in country.” (SIGAR, 30 April 2020, p. 70)[ii], “[…] [A]t the end of May, […] the Taliban announced that they would observe a three-day ceasefire during the Islamic holiday Eid al-Fitr – only the second ceasefire the group has ever offered. In July 2018, 1,000 Taliban attacked ISIL positions in Jowzjan province, killing 200 ISIL fighters, while 254 ISIL fighters surrendered to government forces and 25 foreign terrorist fighters surrendered to the Taliban.” (UN Security Council, 1 February 2019, p. 7), The March 2018 German-language expert opinion on Afghanistan by Friederike Stahlmann provides further information on non-state actors in Afghanistan (Stahlmann, 28 March 2018, section 3.1), “In the very high mountains of Nangrahar are hiding out the last few, small groups of Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) fighters in that province. The recent attacks by the ISKP in Kabul, it seems, are an attempt to show that although their military capacity weakened, they can still inflict major casualties in urban centres.” (Al Jazeera, 2 April 2020) [xix], (All links accessed 6 May 2021, except if otherwise noted). https://www.ecoi.net/en/countries/afghanistan/featured-topics/security-situation-and-socio-economic-situation-in-herat-city-and-mazar-e-sharif/. More … The truck bomb in the provincial capital of Pul-e Alam also wounded more than 90 people, interior ministry says. AFGHANISTAN. Those regions collectively accounted for 68.9 per cent of all recorded incidents, with Helmand, Kandahar, Nangarhar and Balkh Provinces recording most incidents. The Afghan War Casualty Report only includes security incidents confirmed by New York Times reporters across Afghanistan. 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