... negotiations opened on Sept. 12 in Doha, Qatar, increasing by 45 percent in the final quarter of 2020 versus the same time period in 2019. The number of civilian casualties in November was the highest of any year that month since the U.N. began systematically documenting Afghan casualties in 2009, the report said.2020 could have been the year of peace in Afghanistan, said Deborah Lyons, the Special Representative of the U.N. secretary-general for Afghanistan. Instead, thousands of Afghan civilians perished due to the conflict.
The report was released as talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban remain stalled amid unrelenting violence, and a February 2020 agreement between the United States and the Taliban is under review by the Biden administration.
...
