On the evening of March 18, 1992, President Najibullah of Afghanistan interrupted normal radio and television broadcasts with a dramatic speech. “I agree,” he announced, “that once an understanding is reached through the United Nations process for the establishment of an interim government in Kabul, all powers and executive authority will be transferred to the interim government as of the first day of the transition period.” By clearly announcing his intention to step aside, the former secret police chief who had headed the Soviet-backed regime since 1986 seemed to cleared the way for the implementation of a laboriously prepared international plan for resolving one of the last Cold War conflicts.

Less than a month later, President Najibullah was in hiding in the UN's office in Kabul. Rebels in his own military and party had allied with Islamic resistance fighters (mujahidin) to overthrow him during the night of April 15–16. Najibullah's Watan (Homeland) Party split on ethnic lines, with different factions allying with their coethnics among the mujahidin. The leading resistance commander, Ahmad Shah Massoud, spokesman for the alliance that overthrew Najibullah, told Benon Sevan, the UN Secretary General's representative for Afghanistan, that the now victorious mujahidin would form a provisional government themselves.

Before the end of April, fighting erupted in the streets of Kabul as guerrillas belonging to rival parties, factions, and ethnic groups battled for power. Tribal and ethnic coalitions took over the major regional garrisons.