UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet, on Tuesday, condemned disturbing reports of violence by the Taliban against communities now under their control in Afghanistan and backed a return to peace negotiations in Doha.

Bachelet, the High Commissioner for Human Rights said in a statement that there was “fear and dread” across Afghanistan, which had driven people to flee their homes.

According to her, women have been flogged and killed in areas overrun by the extremists, while journalists and human rights defenders had also been attacked and killed.

Reports of violations that could amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity have emerged, including deeply disturbing reports of the summary execution of surrendering government troops.

Since July 9 in four cities alone – Lashkar Gah, Kandahar, Herat, and Kunduz – at least 183 civilians have been killed and 1,181 injured, including children.

On Monday the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) also reported a rapid escalation of violations against children in Afghanistan, following the deaths of 27 children in the country in the past 72 hours, and 136 who were injured.

“But the real figure could be much higher as these are just the civilian casualties we have managed to document.

“Even before the latest Taliban military offensives on urban centers, the UN had documented a steep increase in civilian casualties,’’ Bachelet said.

The militants, ousted in the weeks after Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, are now in a position to advance from different directions on Mazar-i-Sharif, the biggest city in the north, according to the latest news reports.

To date, the Taliban has overrun 192 district administrative centers in Afghanistan, attacked provincial capitals, and reportedly overrun at least six provincial capitals in Nimroz, Jawzjan, Kunduz province, Takhar, and Sar-e-Pul.

In Geneva, spokesperson for High Commissioner Bachelet, Ravina Shamdasani, said that people “rightly” feared that the Taliban would erase the human rights gains of the past two decades, as U.S. and international forces completed their withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Repeating the High Commissioner’s condemnation of reported Taliban violence against communities, including women, rights defenders, and journalists, she told correspondents that women were already being killed and shot for breaching rules while some radio stations had stopped broadcasting.

In Balkh Province, a women’s rights activist was shot and killed for breaching the rules,” Shamdasani said.

The Director-General of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), António Vitorino on Tuesday, also voiced his concern about the impact of the conflict on displaced populations, and those on the move, including returnees.

With over five million people already internally displaced – more than 359,000 so far this year and record numbers of undocumented returnees – some 680,000 Afghans have returned in the first seven months of this year, according to the Border Monitoring Team of the Directorate of Refugees and Repatriation (DoRR).

Vitorino said that along with the country being in the throes of the third wave of COVID-19 and a severe drought, almost half of Afghanistan’s population are in need of emergency relief assistance, with needs expected to rise.

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Calls for restraint have also come from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) which urged the international community to provide more protection for civilians and vital infrastructure, such as hospitals, from attack and help prevent collateral damage caused by fighting in populated areas.

Since August 1, the organization has treated 4,042 patients wounded by weapons at 15 ICRC-supported health facilities, and nearly 13,000 patients in July alone, while ICRC medical services have been heavily strained due to damage and a lack of staff.

“We are seeing homes destroyed, medical staff and patients put at tremendous risk, and hospitals, electricity and water infrastructure damaged”, Eloi Fillion, ICRC’s head of delegation in Afghanistan said in a statement.