More than 100 ex-government, security employees killed since Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, UN says

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said ‘more than two-thirds’ of the deaths appeared to be extrajudicial killings, despite the Taliban’s earlier assurances

It comes as almost 9 million people in the aid-dependent country face ‘emergency’ levels of food insecurity – the highest number anywhere in the world

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Taliban fighters patrol along a street in Kabul earlier this month. The UN says more than 100 former Afghan government and security employees have been killed since the Taliban takeover last year. Photo: Mohd Rasfan/AFP/Getty Images/TNS

Published: 10:35am, 31 Jan 2022Updated: 10:40am, 31 Jan 2022

The United Nations has received “credible allegations” that more than 100 former members of the Afghan government, its security forces and those who worked with international troops have been killed since the Taliban took over the country August 15, Secretary General Antonio Guterres says.

In a report obtained on Sunday, Guterres said that “more than two-thirds” of the death appeared to result from extrajudicial killings by the Taliban or its affiliates, despite the Taliban’s announcement of “general amnesties” for those affiliated with the former government and US-led coalition forces.

The UN political mission in Afghanistan also received “credible allegations of extrajudicial killings of at least 50 individuals suspected of affiliation with ISIL-KP,” the name given to extremist group Islamic State operating in Afghanistan, Guterres said in the report to UN Security Council.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that more than two-thirds of the killings were carried out by the Taliban and its affiliates. Photo: AP

He added that despite Taliban assurances, the UN political mission has also received credible allegations “of enforced disappearances and other violations impacting the right to life and physical integrity” of former government and coalition members.

Guterres said human rights defenders and media workers also continue “to come under attack, intimidation, harassment, arbitrary arrest, ill-treatment and killings”.

Eight civil society activists were killed, including three by the Taliban and three by Isis extremists, and 10 were subjected to temporary arrests, beatings and threats by the Taliban, he said. Two journalists were killed – one by Isis – and two were injured by unknown armed men.

The secretary general said the UN missions documented 44 cases of temporary arrests, beatings and threats of intimidation, 42 of them by the Taliban.