Page 5 - Afghanistan

Earthquake of magnitude 4.1 strikes Afghanistan, no causalities reported

Earlier on September 28, another earthquake of magnitude 3.9 struck the region at a shallow depth of 10km, making is susceptible to aftershocks

UN grants travel ban exemption for Afghan FM to visit India from Oct 9-16

Under Security Council resolution 1988 (2011), certain individuals linked to the Taliban are subject to travel bans

Afghan foreign minister Muttaqi to visit India after UN travel ban waiver

Afghan foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi is expected to visit India next week, in the first high-level trip from Kabul after Taliban captured power overthrowing the Ashraf Ghani government around four years ago. The Afghan foreign minister is expected to visit India from October 10, people familiar with the matter said on Thursday. However, there is no official word on the visit yet. Muttaqi was scheduled to visit New Delhi last month but it was called off in view of a travel ban that he faced under United Nations Security Council (UNSC) sanctions. On September 30, a UNSC committee approved a temporary exemption to the travel ban, allowing Muttaqi to visit New Delhi from October 9 to 16, according to a UN statement. Afghan media reported that Muttaqi will travel to Moscow on October 6 to attend the seventh round of Moscow Format talks. The UNSC has slapped sanctions against all leading Taliban leaders and they have to secure a waiver for foreign travels. Muttaqi's visit is expec

UN mission urges Taliban to restore internet access across Afghanistan

The United Nations mission in Afghanistan urged the Taliban on Tuesday to restore internet and telecommunications access across the country, saying the blackout imposed by the government in Kabul has left the nation almost entirely cut off from the outside world. The outage, reported the previous day, was the first nationwide shutdown since the Taliban returned to power in August 2021 and was part of their professed crackdown on immorality. Earlier this month, several provinces lost their fibre-optic connections after Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada issued a decree banning the service to prevent immorality. The disruption threatened economic stability and deepened one of the world's worst humanitarian crises, said the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan. It warned that the blackout is crippling banking and financial systems, isolating women and girls, limiting access to medical care and remittances, and disrupting aviation. The UN said such restrictions further undermine free

Afghanistan faces internet blackout as Taliban enforce morality crackdown

An internet blackout hit Afghanistan on Monday, with local media reporting a potential nationwide cut of fibre-optic services as part of a Taliban crackdown on immorality. It's the first time Afghanistan has experienced a shutdown of this kind since the former insurgents seized power in August 2021. Earlier this month, several provinces lost fibre-optic connections after Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada issued a decree banning the service to prevent immorality. On Monday, internet-access advocacy group Netblocks said that live metrics showed connectivity in Afghanistan had collapsed to 14 per cent of ordinary levels, with a near-total nationwide telecoms disruption in effect. The incident is likely to severely limit the public's ability to contact the outside world, the group added. The Associated Press was unable to contact its Kabul bureau, as well as journalists in the provinces of Nangarhar and Helmand. There was no confirmation of the blackout from the Taliban government,

From Kabul to Delhi, Afghan teen survives deadly ride in plane's wheel well

The boy, a resident of Kunduz, Afghanistan, reportedly sneaked into Kabul airport on Sunday morning and managed to hide inside the rear wheel well of a KAM Air (RQ-4401) flight bound for New Delhi

Watch: India urges global community to block LeT, JeM operations from Afghanistan

India has called on the international community to ensure UN-designated terror entities, including Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Tayyiba.

Why Trump wants Bagram Air Base to be returned to the US by Afghanistan

Donald Trump says the US is 'trying to get back' Bagram Air Base to counter China and terrorism. The Taliban reject the idea as analysts warn of costs, risks and fallout

Taliban rejects Trump's demand to return Bagram air base to US control

Trump has long criticised his predecessor Joe Biden over the tumultuous US withdrawal from Afghanistan

Trump warns of 'bad things' if Afghanistan does not return Bagram air base

Trump said on Thursday that the United States had sought to regain control of the base used by American forces following the attacks of September 11, 2001

Afghanistan should decide on US return to Bagram Air Base, says China

China on Friday said the decision to re-establish US presence at Bagram Air Base should be left to Afghanistan and its people while responding to President Donald Trump's remarks that Washington is trying to get back the strategic facility for its close proximity to China. China respects Afghanistan's territorial integrity and sovereignty, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian told a media briefing here while responding to a question on Trump's comments. The future of Afghanistan should be in the hands of Afghan people, Lin said. Our stress is that hyping up regional tensions does not win support. We hope relevant sides could play a constructive role for regional stability, he said. Trump on Thursday spoke of US plans to acquire the sprawling air base four years after American troops' chaotic withdrawal following the orders from his predecessor, Joe Biden, as Taliban militants took control of Kabul. Trump said he would like to reacquire the strategic air base because it i

Trump suggests possible US return to Afghan base, citing China proximity

President Donald Trump on Thursday suggested that he is working to reestablish a US presence at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, four years after America's chaotic withdrawal from the country left the base in the Taliban's hands. Trump floated the idea during a press conference with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer as he wrapped up a state visit to the UK and tied it to the need for the US to counter its top rival, China. We're trying to get it back, Trump said of the base in an aside to a question about ending Russia's invasion of Ukraine. While Trump described his call for the US military to reestablish a position in Afghanistan as breaking news, the Republican president has previously raised the idea. The White House did not immediately respond to questions about whether it or the Pentagon has done any planning around returning to the sprawling air base, which was central to America's longest war. During his first presidency, Trump set the terms for the US withdrawal by ...

Taliban internet ban spreads across Afghanistan as more provinces shut down

A Taliban crackdown to prevent immorality is spreading across Afghanistan, with more provinces losing access to fibre-optic internet after the country's leader imposed a complete ban on the technology. It's the first time a ban of this kind has been imposed since the Taliban seized power in August 2021, and leaves government offices, the private sector, public institutions, and homes without Wi-Fi internet. Mobile internet remains functional, however. Officials say alternatives are being found for necessities. The northern Balkh province confirmed a Wi-Fi shutdown on Tuesday, with reports of severe disruption in other parts of the country. On Thursday, officials in the east and north said internet access was cut off in the provinces of Baghlan, Badakhshan, Kunduz, Nangarhar, and Takhar. Siddiqullah Quraishi, from the Nangarhar Culture Directorate, confirmed the shutdown to The Associated Press. The governor's office in Kunduz shared a message in an official WhatsApp group. The ...

India urges global community to block LeT, JeM operations from Afghanistan

India has called on the international community to ensure UN-designated terror entities, including Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Tayyiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed, as well as their facilitators, no longer exploit Afghan territory for terrorist activities. India is closely monitoring the security situation in Afghanistan, India's Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Parvathaneni Harish said on Wednesday. The international community must coordinate efforts towards ensuring that entities and individuals designated by the UN Security Council, ISIL and Al Qaeda and their affiliates, including Lashkar-e-Tayyiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed, along with those who facilitate their operations, no longer exploit the Afghan territory for terrorist activities, he said, in an apparent reference to Pakistan. Harish, delivering a statement at the UN Security Council meeting on Afghanistan, said that India and Afghanistan share a civilisational relationship and Delhi has a paramount interest in ensuring peac

Pak-Afghanistan ties worsen as Sharif warns Kabul over cross-border attacks

Officials in Islamabad have also hinted at the possibility of expanding aerial operations deeper into Afghan territory should militant attacks persist

Afghanistan quake destroys 5,230 homes; 362 villages still unreachable

An initial United Nations assessment of the impact of Afghanistan's recent deadly earthquake found 5,230 homes destroyed and 672 damaged in 49 villages but the UN hasn't been able to get to the vast majority of the remote villages. Shannon O'Hara, the coordination chief for the UN humanitarian office in Afghanistan, said Monday that damaged roads in the country's rugged and mountainous east where the 6.0 magnitude quake struck have made it extremely difficult to assess the impact in the 441 affected villages. A series of aftershocks ranging from 5.2 to 5.6 in magnitude added to the difficulties, she said. The earthquake struck on August 31, killing at least 2,200 people, and that figure could rise as more bodies are recovered. The United Nations estimates the quake has affected up to 500,000 people, more than half of them children and some of them Afghans forcibly returned from neighbouring Pakistan and Iran. As an example of the difficulties the UN team has faced, O'Hara said it

WHO urges Taliban to let female aid workers help quake-hit Afghan women

After a deadly earthquake killed 2,200 in eastern Afghanistan, the WHO said women need female doctors, but Taliban rules stop female aid workers from travelling freely

Afghan foreign minister Muttaqi's India visit postponed over UN sanctions

A planned visit to India by Afghan foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi this month has been called off in view of an existing travel ban he faces under UN Security Council sanctions, people familiar with the matter said on Friday. The visit was postponed after he could not get a waiver for the trip, they said. If the visit had taken place, then it would have been the first ministerial visit from Kabul to India after the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021. The UN Security Council had slapped sanctions against all the leading Taliban leaders and they need to secure a waiver for foreign travels. External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal, when asked at his weekly media briefing about reports of Muttaqi's proposed visit to India, did not give a direct reply. "As you are aware, we have longstanding ties with the people of Afghanistan. India continues to support the aspirations and developmental needs of the Afghan people," he said. "We continue to have engage

Afghanistan hit by series of earthquakes in 24 hrs, latest of magnitude 4.5

This came after two earthquakes of magnitudes 5.8 and 4.1 struck the region in the late hours of Thursday, as per the NCS

Death toll from Afghan quake jumps to over 2,200 as aid agencies seek funds

Hundreds more bodies have been recovered from houses in mountain villages destroyed by a major earthquake in Afghanistan early this week, pushing the death toll to over 2,200, a Taliban government spokesman said Thursday. The shallow, 6.0-magnitude quake struck the mountainous and remote eastern part of the country late Sunday, leveling villages and trapping people under rubble. Most of the casualties have been in Kunar province, where people typically live in wood and mud-brick houses along steep river valleys separated by high mountains. Some 98% percent of the buildings in the province were damaged or destroyed, according to an assessment issued Thursday by the Islamic Relief charity. Aid agencies said they were sorely in need of staff and supplies to tend to the region's survivors. Muhammad Israel said the quake unleashed a landslide that buried his home, livestock, and belongings in Kunar. All the rocks came down from the mountain," he said. I barely got my children out of ther