Taliban killed more than 100 Afghans working with coalition forces and previous regime, says UN

More than 100 Afghans working alongside US-led coalition forces and for the previous Afghan government have been killed by the Taliban since it seized control in August, the United Nations has said.

Despite assurances of a general amnesty, the Taliban has carried out “enforced disappearances and other violations impacting the right to life and physical integrity,” said Antonio Guterres, the UN’s Secretary General.

The Taliban views Afghans who worked with US-led coalition forces and the Hamid Karzai regime as enemies of the state. Several Afghan womens’ activists have also disappeared over the last few weeks.

Charities estimate there are as many as 300 Afghans still awaiting relocation to the United Kingdom. One former high-ranking Afghan official who worked alongside British troops between 2014-2015 told The Telegraph he would be killed if the Taliban found him.

“All the information related to our identities was leaked, we couldn’t destroy it in time. I had a role of great responsibility and because of that they are searching for me,” said the former high-ranking Afghan official.

“If they find me they will torture me and kill me. The British said we will call you [to leave] but they never did.”

Anger is rising over a privately chartered plane which left Kabul on August 28 with more than 100 animals belonging to a charity run by a British citizen, Paul “Pen” Farthing, while thousands of Afghans desperately tried to storm Kabul International Airport to leave the country on evacuation flights.

Mr Guterres also warned Afghanistan is facing an unprecedented humanitarian crisis. Over half of its 40 million citizens are projected to experience emergency levels of food insecurity by March 2022.

There have been repeated reports from the country of Afghan citizens selling their own children or bodily organs to put food on the table for their families.

On Sunday, US President Joe Biden refused to release over £7 billion of frozen Afghan funds until the insurgents release a US navy veteran, Mark Frerichs, who has been held hostage for two years.

International financial bodies, including the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, have also halted the Taliban’s access to funding over human rights abuses.