UN Peacekeeping Effort in Afghanistan

The Assembly maintained its focus on Afghanistan throughout the 1980s, adopting a series of resolutions which called for an end to the conflict, withdrawal of foreign troops, UN assistance to find a political settlement and international help for refugees and others affected by the conflict.
Following the May 1987 agreement, the UN had begun strenuous efforts to coordinate humanitarian assistance. Afghanistan had long been designated by the UN as one of the world's least developed countries and war only made it more difficult to respond to the challenge of reconstruction and development.
In 1989, under the guidance of the Secretary-General's newly-appointed Coordinator for United Nations Humanitarian and Economic Assistance Programmes, a plan of action was developed jointly by United Nations agencies and programmes, including the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the World Food Programme (WFP).
In 1993, two peace accords were negotiated between President Rabbani and eight other Afghan leaders - in Islamabad on 7 March and in Jalalabad on 18 May. In these accords, the leaders agreed to form a government for 18 months, to set in motion an electoral process, to formulate a constitution, and to establish a defence council to set up a national army. In his annual report issued in September, the Secretary-General observed that although the accords were encouraging, they had neither resolved the problems of the government nor removed the threat of renewed fighting around Kabul.
In December 1993, at the request of the General Assembly, the Secretary-General established the United Nations Special Mission to Afghanistan (UNSMA) to canvass a broad spectrum of Afghan leaders and solicit their views on how the UN could best help with national reconciliation and reconstruction. Meanwhile, the movement of civilians mirrored the ebb and flow of battlefield realities, with many refugees returning to peaceful parts of the country. In 1992, more than 1.2 million returned home from Pakistan.