Five humanitarian aid workers were killed a few months before the first elections in Afghanistan are to take place. The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the murders. According to Reuters, three foreign and two Afghan staff members of Doctors Without Borders were killed in the northwestern province of Badghis on Wednesday. The attacks bring the number of aid workers killed in Afghanistan since the beginning of this year to 21, reports Reuters.
Recently, a group of armed men broke into a home of a female teacher in Afghanistan and threatened to kill her if she didn’t stop promoting women’s rights, according to the Washington Post. A leaflet was also found at a mosque in Khost, Afghanistan stating that all good Muslims should stay away from government buildings, foreign troops, and official funerals or else “your bodies will join theirs,” reports the Washington Post.
Only 2.8 million of the 10.5 million estimated eligible Afghan voters are currently registered, of which approximately one-third are women. The first post-Taliban elections that were to take place in June were postponed until September due to the lack of security. Despite the dire security situation in Afghanistan, peacekeeping forces in Afghanistan remain a small contingent of some 6,500 soldiers.
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