U.N. to Go Back to Afghanistan

The United Nations is returning some of its international staff to Afghanistan after a seven-month absence sparked by the killings of three U.N. staffers in July and August.

The top U.N. humanitarian coordinator, Sergio Vieira de Mello, cited progress by Afghanistan’s Taliban militia in investigating the killings, as well as evidence of Taliban efforts to address U.N. security concerns.

“We remain deeply concerned with the security situation in Afghanistan, and we plan to monitor and evaluate the security environment as the days and weeks go by,” he told reporters.

The U.N. withdrew its international staff from Afghanistan on Aug. 22, a day after an Italian U.N. military advisor was shot and killed in the capital, Kabul. The previous month, two Afghan U.N. workers were killed in Jalalabad.

However, relations between the United Nations and the Taliban militia had soured long before the pullout, primarily over the Taliban treatment of women and girls and constraints on U.N. workers. U.N. reports of mass killings by Taliban troops of Afghan minorities also deepened the divide.