UN employees under increasing threat from Taliban, says rights chief

Employees of UN agencies in Afghanistan are increasingly subject to attacks and intimidation, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said.

The UN rights chief was speaking ahead of a donor conference for the impoverished country now under the hardline rule of the Taliban.

Bachelet said the Taliban was conducting targeted house-to-house searches for people whom they believed had once worked for the U.S. military or U.S. companies.

“A number of similar incidents have affected UN staff, who report increasing attacks and threats,” she added.

She said reports of the searches were coming from various parts of the country, including the cities of Kabul, Herat, Kandahar, and Mazar-e-Sharif.

Beyond revenge attacks, Bachelet expressed general concern about the increasing violence in Afghanistan, the worsening shortages of food and other supplies, as well as the exclusion of women from public life.