ABSTRACT
The international community had little confidence in Afghanistan’s prospects for 2016. In his final report to the UN Security Council on 15 March, Nicholas Haysom, head of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, said that ‘survival will be an achievement’ for the Afghan government in 2016, given the country’s strengthened insurgency, troubled peace process, low economic growth, political divisions and reliance on financial donors. Nonetheless, the government did survive – albeit amid rising fatalities, injuries and displacement (including a record number of civilian casualties) and while losing control of parts of the country.
