Afghanistan: Ban Ki-moon urges stepped-up efforts to boost stability amid rising attacks

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today called for stepped-up efforts to promote stability in Afghanistan after a series of attacks there this month resulted in the killing of six de-miners, six Canadian troops serving with the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), nine civilians and a local journalist.

In a statement issued by his spokesperson, Mr. Ban added his voice to that of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), which has already condemned the attacks, and he offered his condolences to the bereaved families.

“The Secretary-General strongly condemns such acts of violence and calls upon the Government of Afghanistan and the international community, including the ISAF, to redouble their efforts to ensure stability, combat impunity and ensure an environment of respect for human rights,” the statement said.

Many of the recent attacks in Afghanistan, which is trying to recover from decades of war and misrule, have been concentrated in the south and southwest of the country, where the Taliban has been active again in the past year after it was dislodged from power at the end of 2001.

On Sunday, six Canadian troops died after an improvised explosive device attack in Kandahar province, the same day that the Afghan journalist Ajmal Naqshbandi, who was abducted by the Taliban on 5 March in Helmand province, was murdered.

A day earlier six Afghan de-miners working in Farah province were ambushed and killed, and on 1 April a suicide bomber in Laghman province murdered nine others, including five children.