House Foreign Relations leaders call on Taliban to ‘immediately’ stop violence

House Foreign Affairs Committee leaders from both parties on Friday condemned a recent uptick of violence in Afghanistan, just two months after U.S. negotiators and the Taliban announced an “understanding” to decrease violence in Afghanistan that was expected to bring both sides closer to an agreement to end America’s longest war.

Since March 1, the Taliban has carried out roughly 55 attacks per day, according to the Afghan National Security Council. The Pentagon’s Office of the Special Inspector General for Afghan Reconstruction last week said that the significant uptick in March attacks were “above seasonal norms.”

“The dramatic increase in violence in Afghanistan is an unacceptable violation of the Trump Administration’s February agreement with the Taliban,” Chairman Eliot Engel, New York Democrat, and Ranking Member Michael McCaul, Texas Republican, said in a statement Friday.

“The Taliban’s continued attacks on Afghan forces make us question whether the Taliban will uphold its commitments, jeopardize progress towards peace, and prevent negotiations from moving forward.”

The Feb. 29 agreement came a year and a half after U.S. officials began peace talks with the radical Islamist group in an effort to wind down the longest military campaign in American history and bring home more than 12,000 U.S. troops still in the country, but both sides have walked away once a deal appeared close.

Since the deal was struck, the Taliban has launched over 4,500 attacks, according to Reuters, with a large number of the attacks in provinces that have been hit by the coronavirus outbreak. Humanitarian organizations continue to warn that Afghanistan could be severely impacted by the economic fallout from the pandemic.

“During the COVID-19 pandemic, the increase in violence prevents Afghans from focusing on the health crisis,” the members wrote.

Afghanistan has reported 3,778 confirmed cases of COVID-19, 109 deaths and 472 recoveries, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker. But experts and officials have cautioned that the true numbers could be much higher due to a shortage of testing materials in rural communities. The country’s population stands at 37 million.

The members called “on all parties to immediately stop attacks and enter into a humanitarian crisis ceasefire, deescalate the cruel cycle of violence, and support the road to peace and stability that the Afghan people want.”