The charity Halo Trust fell victim to a brutal attack against its staff that left ten dead and 16 wounded. The attack took place during the night, when a group of armed men entered one of the camps accommodating workers of the organization in the northern Baghlan province and opened fire. In total, around 110 men from local communities were in the camp at the time of the attack, including Halo Trust workers that had spent the day removing mines from a nearby field. The Islamic State in Khorasan Province (ISKP), an entity affiliated with extremist terrorist group ISIL, claimed responsibility for the incident. According to the CEO of the charity, Mr. James Cowan, the gunmen were targeting team members from the Shiite Hazara ethnic minority. However, as the rest of the staff refused to identify them, the gunmen went from room to room and murdered the staff.
Following the Afghan government’s accusation against the Taliban, this group denied any affiliation with the attack. In Mr Cowan’s view, it was the local members of the Taliban who “came to [their] rescue during the attack and chased the assailants away”, thus confirming the version of that group. Several representatives of the United Nations strongly condemned the assault. Dr. Razim Alakbarov, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Afghanistan, declared that “it is repugnant that an organization that works to clear landmines and other explosives and better the lives of vulnerable people could be targeted”. The UN Spokesperson Mr. Stéphane Dujarric called for a full investigation to ensure that those responsible are held accountable and brought to justice.
Despite attempts between the government and the Taliban to negotiate a peace agreement and the resumption in May of peace talks after a long pause in Qatar, the humanitarian and security situation in the country remains very fragile. In particular, attacks on humanitarian activities and incidents involving humanitarian workers increased in 2020 by a staggering 140% as compared to 2019, this trend has been continuing in 2021: between January and April of the present year, 11 aid workers were killed, 27 injured and 36 abducted.
Sources:
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/06/09/asia/afghanistan-mine-clearing-attack-intl-hnk/index.html
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/5/14/taliban-afghanistan-government-negotiators-meet-in-qatar
https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/06/1093702
Author: Michele Pitta