With the worsening security situation for international agencies in Afghanistan and the humanitarian aid workers, the future is increasingly getting uncertain for the organizations that have been instrumental in reducing poverty and human suffering during Taliban rule on Afghanistan and in the one last decade. There has been a considerable rise in militants’ attacks on employees and offices of the international humanitarian organizations in recent months. This week, the militants abducted and then killed six aid workers, including five Afghan employees of the International Rescue Committee, who were working with rehabilitation and development projects run by the government in Herat province. As the aftermath of the incident, the Committee suspended its operations in Afghanistan.

The growing threats against humanitarian aid organizations is meaning a hard time ahead for the vulnerable segments of the society who rely on humanitarian assistance of the international aid agencies. In May, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) halted its operations in many parts of the country after a suicide attack targeted its office in eastern Nangarhar province. After the attack, dozens of disabled people protested in Nangarhar city and urged support and protection for the agency, which had been supporting those affected by decades of war and insecurity. The militants also targeted this year an office of International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Kabul.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has been active in Afghanistan since thirty years ago, providing assistance for war victims, war prisoners and ordinary people affected of war and insecurity, while the International Rescue Committee have been operating in Afghanistan since the Taliban rule in the country. At a time when there was a humanitarian catastrophe in Afghanistan under Taliban, the international aid agencies played a crucial role in providing livelihood for the destitute people and the families who had lost their men in the wars. The attacks on humanitarian agencies in Afghanistan have met broad condemnations, with the UN and the International Amnesty labeling them as war crimes.

The current trend of suspension of operation some leading international organizations in Afghanistan is a sign of the challenges ahead for aid agencies which provide assistance to the affected people and many other non-government organizations that are actively engaged in promoting human rights and women’s rights. In a bigger scope, the future of the non-government organizations, which shoulder a big share of the burden of the ongoing efforts for promoting welfares, rights, awareness, literacy and livelihood of the people, will become even more uncertain if the current trends of threats against the non-government organizations and aid agencies are not stopped.

The Taliban are increasingly turning to the nature of an insurgent group that randomly target non-government actors such as aid workers, private sector and ordinary people who, in the eyes of Taliban, have links with the government or foreigners. In the past, at some points, there were relatively better situations for operation of aid agencies across Afghanistan even in the areas where Taliban have high influence. As the insurgent groups are fighting tooth and nail to gain advantage of security handover from NATO to Afghan forces before the planned drawdown of the US forces, they declines to observe the lines between political violence and affairs related to the innocent civilians. In contrast to the claims Taliban leaders make, the insurgents are increasingly relinquishing the commitment to responsibly differentiate between civilians and combatants.

In recent years, the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan sought to negotiate with the Taliban for protecting civilians and aid agencies and to convince the insurgents to be committed to their pledges for protecting non-combatant actors. There even were signs of Taliban readiness for talks with the UN over the issues, but finally the efforts by UN bore no results and the insurgents mounted their attacks on civil populations and non-government agencies. Recently a report by the UNAMA suggested a staggering rise in civilian casualties this year in the country, indicating that the insurgents will continue to be responsible for the most of the civilian casualties.

Despite that at some periods in the past, the Taliban have been cooperating with the organizations providing aid and health services across the country, but in recent months, the militants have attacked on offices or employees of some major international organizations – such as the International Rescue Committee in Herat, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Kabul and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Nangarhar. It seems that the recent attacks targeting international aid agencies and UN-affiliated organizations have been part of the Taliban's spring offensive, which has escalated in recent months. In another word, despite Taliban’s formal claims, they do not spare the humanitarian organizations in their violent campaign which was launched against Afghan and foreign forces this spring.

As the US-led NATO alliance is withdrawing the bulk of its combat troops from Afghanistan, the pressures on aid agencies will have dire effects in the post-2014 period. As the time of their rule on Afghanistan, the Taliban have had ambiguous policies regarding operations of the non-government and UN-affiliated agencies involved in providing humanitarian assistance and medical services for the ordinary people and affected segments of the society. The insurgent groups sometimes have been tacitly supporting aid programs provided by international organizations, but other times, they have continued targeting the employees and offices of the international organizations and UN-affiliated agencies operating in the country.

The recent attacks targeting the international organizations is proving the fact the militants would remain a potential threat for operation of international humanitarian aid organizations, whose operations are, and will be, crucial for the Afghans affected from the war and insecurity. The militant groups are not ready to stick to their pledges regarding protection of the civilians and avoiding attacks on non-military organizations involved in providing aid for the Afghans. Continuations of attacks by the militant groups on international aid agencies will only bring more suffering to the people of Afghanistan and deprive them from assistance programs provided by the international agencies.