Afghanistan ‘in worst shape since 2001’ after troop pull-out
AFGHANISTAN has plunged into its worst humanitarian crisis since the start of operations in 2001 after American and British forces pulled out 18 months ago, the outgoing head of the International Red Cross has said.
The drawdown of Nato troops has led to an upsurge in fighting, with the Taliban
now able to bring its war to major cities for the first time, Jean-Nicolas Marti told The Daily Telegraph.
Last year the number of war wounded evacuated by the International Committee of the Red Cross grew by 30 per cent on the year before, while 2016’s figure is already on course to outstrip that. The number of civilian casualties overall was also the highest since 2001 thanks to Taliban advances.
After the US and Britain pulled out most of their troops in 2014, the remaining Nato force was today supposed to stand at 5,000, training Afghan forces.
In fact it is around double that, and still the Taliban has been able to attack major cities such as Kunduz in the north, which it briefly seized at the end of last year, and parts of Helmand once secured by British troops.
“If international forces hadn’t been helping Lashkar Gah in Helmand it would have fallen most probably to the armed opposition,” Mr Marti said.
The Taliban was already resurgent when Mr Obama took the decision to draw down US forces in 2014.
“Even if Nato said at the end of 2014, ‘mission accomplished’, that schools have opened, women have their rights back, it doesn’t look to be the case a year and a half afterwards,” Mr Marti said.
He added his organisation believed proposed peace talks would be the best outcome for the country.