Region should be extending Afghanistan support, says top UN envoy

23 Jul 2015

Region should be extending Afghanistan support, says top UN envoy

KABUL - Identifying Afghanistan’s security challenges as a “regional phenomenon,” the top UN envoy in the country called for the region to extend to Afghans the support they need to confront what he called “significant challenges.”

Nicholas Haysom, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, credited the Afghan National Security Forces for standing their ground, particularly in light of an increase in the intensity of the conflict, and called for additional regional support.

“The countries of the region from which many of these fighters come, and the countries of the region to which many of them are going, are now fighting their fight in Afghanistan,” said the UN envoy, addressing members of the media in the northern province of Faryab during a visit there to assess the security situation.

“It seems to me proper that the region should be extending to Afghanistan all the support that it can in encountering what is not an Afghanistan problem, but a regional phenomenon,” said Mr. Haysom, who heads the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).

The top UN envoy went on to say that the world body will continue to support the Afghan Government and the people of Afghanistan, as it has done for 50 years.

“I think all over Afghanistan, people are really confronting quite significant challenges,” he said. “We intend to be with the Afghan people as they take on the longer-term challenges of development and building the institutions in the country.”