The state of affairs in Afghanistan continues to deteriorate, with a marked increase in violence and insecurity, weak and ineffective governance, corruption and a growing Taliban insurgency which has gained immense momentum and continues to escalate.
While there were hopes that with the formation of the Government of National Unity, and takeover of security by the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF), the state of affairs in Afghanistan would improve. However, Afghanistan is far from being stable. President Ashraf Ghani, like his predecessor, has struggled to achieve stability, bring relief to the masses or make any progress with the Afghan Taliban regarding the peace process. In the first nine months of 2017, there has been a 52% increase in civilian casualties in air strikes by the US coalition and Afghan forces compared with the same period in 2016.[1] Additionally, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 338,000 people have been displaced in this year alone.[2]
