KABUL: Afghanistan saw a 10 percent jump in opium cultivation this year, a sharp rise owing to favorable weather, growing insecurity and a drop in international support for counter-narcotics operations, the UN said Sunday.

Cultivation dropped last year due to drought conditions but it has been on the rise in the past decade, fuelling the Taliban insurgency and spurring a growing crisis of drug addiction despite costly US-led counter-narcotics programs.

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