NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg called this Sunday for a "humanitarian pause in the fighting" in Afghanistan, a country "very affected", according to him, by Covid-19. "There is an urgent need for a humanitarian pause in the fighting, if only to curb the threat posed to the country by the Coronavirus," he told the French weekly Le Journal du Dimanche (JDD). .
“Violence and instability still prevail in Afghanistan. It is a very difficult situation, especially since the country is now also very affected by the Coronavirus, ”he added. Afghanistan officially counted two Covid-19 deaths Thursday, as well as 80 cases of contamination among Afghans and four among foreign soldiers.
Intensified offensives and a spreading virus
But the reality could be much worse in this country of about 35 million inhabitants with very limited healthcare capacity after 40 years of conflict, and a neighbor of Iran, where the epidemic has been raging for several weeks. Given the urgency of the situation, the Afghan authorities have announced the release of up to 10,000 prisoners in the coming days to prevent the spread of the virus.
Since the signing of an agreement with the United States on February 29, intended to advance towards a peace process, the Taliban have also intensified their offensives across the country against the Afghan security forces.
Reduction in expected violence
Jens Stoltenberg - whose organization has 16,000 troops in Afghanistan - reiterated that the peace process would be "long, hard" and that there would be "disappointments. "But there is no other alternative than a political solution," he said.
"Now the Taliban must keep their promise to reduce violence, start inter-Afghan negotiations and take steps to allow a permanent ceasefire," he added. "The level of violence must drop," he said.
In the February 29 agreement, the Taliban pledged to enter into peace talks with the Afghan government and to discuss a possible comprehensive ceasefire in return for a gradual withdrawal from the United States forces.
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