On Monday 30 April, the spokesperson for the European External Action Service (EEAS) condemned the multiple attacks in Afghanistan earlier in the day that have claimed at least 40 lives.
"The people of Afghanistan continue to pay the heaviest price for the conflict ravaging their country. They also continue to suffer from a blatant disregard for international humanitarian law: civilians, and most of all children, must never be a target", the EEAS spokesperson said in a press release. The spokesperson added that the EU would continue to back and support Afghanistan on the path for peace and prosperity.
"A place of education should be where children can grow up and study in safety", the EEAS spokesperson stated, with 11 school children having been killed earlier in the day during an attack on a NATO convoy that also hit a nearby school. Elsewhere, 16 other people have been wounded, including eight Romanian soldiers.
The EEAS spokesperson also said that the work of journalists was "vital for its contribution to democracy and to fundamental freedoms". Two attacks took place in Kabul, the second seeming specifically to target journalists who were on the scene of the first attack. Twenty-five people were killed, including at least nine journalists, in these attacks that have been claimed by so-called Islamic State. Around 40 people were wounded. In a separate incident also on Monday 30 April, a BBC journalist was shot dead in Khost province. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)