Page 23 - Afghanistan

UN to declare gender apartheid as mental health of Afghan women worsens

The U.N.'s most powerful body must support governments seeking to legally declare the intensifying crackdown by Afghanistan's Taliban rulers on women and girls gender apartheid, the head of the U.N. agency promoting gender equality said Tuesday. Sima Bahous, executive director of UN Women, told the Security Council that more than 50 increasingly dire Taliban edicts are being enforced with more severity including by male family members. That is exacerbating mental health issues and suicidal thoughts especially among young women and is shrinking women's decision-making even in their own homes. They tell us that they are prisoners living in darkness, confined to their homes without hope or future," she said. Under international law, apartheid is defined as a system of legalized racial segregation that originated in South Africa. But a growing consensus among international experts, officials and activists says apartheid can also apply to gender in cases like that of Afghanistan, where .

Complete isolation of Afghanistan will not work: Qatar Foreign Ministry

Ansari highlighted that Qatar is working to mediate in Afghanistan and the rest of the world

Nearly 2 million people in Afghanistan face acute food insecurity: UN

The organisation said that 41 million people in Afghanistan face severe food insecurity at an alarming level

UN urges Taliban govt to stop torture, protect rights of detainees

The United Nations said on Wednesday it has documented more than 1,600 cases of human rights violations committed by authorities in Afghanistan during arrests and detentions of people, and urged the Taliban government to stop torture and protect the rights of detainees. Nearly 50 per cent of the violations consisted of torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said. The report by the mission's Human Rights Service covered 19 months from January 2022 until the end of July 2023 with cases documented across 29 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces. It said 11 per cent of the cases involved women. It said the torture aimed at extracting confessions and other information included beatings, suffocation, suspension from the ceiling and electric shocks. Cases that were not considered sufficiently credible and reliable were not included in the report, it said. The Taliban have promised a more moderate rule than during their previous period

Afghanistan among countries with 'worst educational conditions': Report

Malik noted that education in Afghanistan has been damaged by the "state actors and armed non-state actors", adding that new barriers to education in Afghanistan are still challenging

Key trade crossing between Afghanistan and Pakistan reopens after 9 days

A key north-western border crossing between Pakistan and Afghanistan reopened Friday after a nine-day closure due to clashes between border forces, officials from both sides said. Pakistan shut the Torkham border with its neighbour on September 6 after guards from both countries exchanged fire. It accused Taliban authorities of building unlawful structures in the vicinity. Pakistani government official Nasir Khan said the crossing reopened Friday morning. Afghanistan's commissioner in Torkham, Ismatullah Yaqoob, said stranded trucks and pedestrians have started passing through the border. A representative from the Pakistan and Afghanistan Joint Chamber of Commerce welcomed the move. The reopening has ended the nine-day-long trouble faced by traders on both sides of the border, said Ziaul Haq Sarhadi. Traders have faced heavy losses in perishable items, he said. Pakistan's envoy to Afghanistan Ubaidur Rehman Nizamani met the Taliban administration's Foreign Minister Amir Khan Mutt

Afghan drivers criticise fuel price hike, call on Taliban to pay attention

"A lot of northern oil used to be imported to Kabul, now that Salang highway is closed, the imports have decreased," said Shafiq a fuel seller

India sent 50,000 MTs of wheat, 28 tonnes of disaster relief to Afghanistan

Amid worsening humanitarian situation in Afghanistan, India said it delivered 50,000 MTs of wheat, 28 tons of disaster relief and 200 tons of medicines, vaccines and other medical items to the country

'Afghanistan headed to civil war with Taliban splitting into factions'

Two years after the US forces abruptly left Kabul, Afghanistan is headed towards a civil war, the Taliban is now riddled with factionalism, and the country is fast becoming a safe haven for foreign terrorists, a former Afghan commander has said. I believe that the situation in Afghanistan is very critical and dangerous and it's going in a dangerous direction, which could be a civil war again, or which could be a split to Afghanistan because you see that in last two years Afghanistan has been controlled by the terrorists and it has fallen into terrorist hands, Lt. Gen. Haibatullah Alizai, who was chief of staff for the army at the time the capital city of Kabul fell to Taliban in August 2021, told PTI in an interview. Alizai currently lives in the US and has recently launched an initiative to unite Afghans outside the country. Expressing his deep dissatisfaction over the current situation in Afghanistan, the former Afghan commander blames the Biden administration for abruptly leaving

Afghanistan meth trade surges as Taliban clamps down on heroin: UN

The country is also a major opium producer and heroin source, even though the Taliban declared a war on narcotics after they returned to power in August 2021

US military equipment left in Afghanistan now in militant hands: Pak PM

Pakistan's caretaker prime minister claimed on Monday that US military equipment left behind during the American withdrawal from Afghanistan has fallen into militant hands and ultimately made its way to the Pakistani Taliban. The equipment which includes a wide variety of items, from night vision goggles to firearms is now emerging as a new challenge for Islamabad as it has enhanced the fighting capabilities of the Pakistani Taliban, Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar said. The Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP, have over the past months intensified attacks on Pakistan's security forces. They are a separate militant group but an ally of the Afghan Taliban. The Taliban overran Afghanistan in mid-August 2021 as US and NATO troops were in the last weeks of their chaotic pullout from the country after 20 years of war. In the face of the Taliban sweep, the US-backed and trained Afghan military crumbled. There is no definite information on how much US equipme

840,000 Afghans who applied for US resettlement programme still waiting

More than 8,40,000 Afghans who applied for a resettlement programme aimed at people who helped the US war effort in Afghanistan are still there waiting, according to a report that lays out the challenges with a programme intended to help America's allies in the two-decade long conflict. The report released Thursday by the State Department's inspector general outlines steps the department took to improve processing of special immigrant visas for Afghans. But two years after the US pullout from Afghanistan and the return of the Taliban to power, challenges remain. The visa programme was started in 2009 to help Afghans who worked side-by-side with Americans and faced significant risks for doing so. A similar programme exists for Iraqis. Both programmes have been plagued by criticism that cases move much too slowly, leaving applicants in dangerous limbo. And since the US left Afghanistan the number of people applying for the visas has skyrocketed. According to the report, there were a .

'Help us play again': Afghanistan's female cricketers plead with ICC

Just over two years ago, Firooza Amiri was an 18-year-old batter for the Afghanistan women's cricket team, ready to take on the world if given the chance. But just like that, her world and that of millions of others in her country changed forever. Forced to flee with her family when the Taliban retook power in Afghanistan on Aug. 15, 2021, Amiri and her family first traveled to Pakistan and then were evacuated to Australia, She still lives in Australia, along with most of her 25 teammates. Now, looking for their place in international competition, they are pleading with the International Cricket Council and the Afghanistan cricket authorities to give them a place to play, despite the Taliban's ban on women in sport and education. Yeah, unfortunately two weeks ago was the two-year anniversary of the Taliban and our BLACK DAY, Amiri said in a message to The Associated Press, accentuating two words in capital letters. Amiri and her family were from the oasis city of Herat, then the .

Will continue to support allies, proud to have welcomed 115,000 Afghans: US

Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin, marking the conclusion of two years since the end of the war in Afghanistan, has said that the US will "continue to push to help resettle our Afghan allies".

Taliban say they have signed mining contracts worth $6.5 bn in Afghanistan

Afghanistan's ruling Taliban government said it signed seven mining contracts Thursday amounting to USD 6.5 billion in investment, in the biggest such round of deals since seizing power two years ago. The seven contracts are with locally based companies, many of whom have foreign partners in countries including China, Iran, and Turkiye. They include the extraction and processing of iron ore, lead, zinc and gold in four provinces: Herat, Ghor, Logar and Takhar. A statement on the contracts from Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs Abdul Ghani Baradar Akhund gave few details, but said they would create thousands of jobs and significantly improve the economic situation of the country. Any figures given for the deals could be misleading unless they lead to fully realized mining operations on the ground, which could take years, said Javed Noorani, an expert in Afghanistan's mining sector. The Taliban know Afghanistan has minerals and this is cash, but it's not easy cash, Noorani t

WHO appeals for budget of $125 mn for funding of Afghanistan's hospitals

The organisation also noticed a decrease in the size of its local health teams, which went from 513 to 453 people

Over 200 fmr officials, security forces killed since Taliban takeover: UN

More than 200 extrajudicial killings of former Afghan government officials and security forces have taken place since the Taliban took over the country two years ago, according to a UN report released on Tuesday. The groups most targeted by the Taliban have been former army, police and intelligence forces, according to the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan. UNAMA documented at least 800 human rights violations against former Afghan government officials and security forces between August 15, 2021, when the Taliban seized power, and the end of June 2023. The Taliban swept across Afghanistan as US and NATO troops were in the final weeks of their withdrawal from the country after two decades of war. The US-trained and backed Afghan forces crumbled in the face of the Taliban advance and former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country. Individuals were detained by the de facto (Taliban) security forces, often briefly, before being killed. Some were taken to detention

India supplied 47,500 MT of wheat to Afghanistan since Taliban's takeover

Besides sending wheat, India has also been consistently providing medical and food assistance using land routes bordering Pakistan and the Chabahar Port in Iran

Hamid Karzai urges Taliban to reopen schools, universities for girls

Karzai urged all to educate their children, including girls. He called on the Taliban to open schools for girls and promote nationwide education for true independence

Will return soon: Afghan envoy to India after 'missing' reports

He further stated that the embassy continues to function its routine work normally and has diligently addressed various matters