Tag: afghanistan

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https://amp.france24.com/en/asia-pacific/20220815-afghanistan-suffering-one-of-the-world-s-worst-humanitarian-crises-under-taliban

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Afghanistan suffering ‘one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises’ under Taliban

Afghanistan has been suffering through a grave humanitarian crisis since the Taliban took control on August 15, 2021. According to the UN, 95 percent of Afghans are going hungry. It’s a catastrophe that worsened after the fall of Kabul one year ago, exacerbated by the US decision to freeze the Afghan Central Bank’s assets and the international sanctions that have crippled an already fragile economy.

In total, nearly 20 million people – half of the Afghan population – are suffering from food insecurity and 95 percent of the population do not have enough food to eat, according to the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP). More than a million children under the age of five suffer from acute and prolonged malnutrition.

In Ghor province, in central Afghanistan, the WFP recently announced that tens of thousands of people are facing level 5 “catastrophic” acute food insecurity, the highest level short of a famine. The situation is even worse in southern Afghanistan, which is predominantly agricultural and suffers from frequent droughts .

Women and children are the primary victims of this economic and humanitarian crisis. Children are taken out of school and put to work. Families will sell one or more to provide the means to support the rest of the family.

Children are often sold to become cheap labour, but girls are also sold into forced marriages – practices that are longstanding in Afghanistan but are becoming more and more common.

Afghan women have lost everything; like men, they’ve often lost their jobs – although sometimes they were the only ones working in the household – but in addition to that they’ve lost a lot of fundamental human rights.

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https://www.911memorial.org/connect/commemoration/20th-anniversary-commemoration

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Ceremonies to mark 20 years since 9/11

The 20th anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks will be marked with the traditional reading of victims’ names – the 2,983 men, women, and children killed in the 9/11 attacks and the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center – held at the memorial plaza. Six moments of silence mark the times when each of the World Trade Center towers was struck, when each tower fell, and the times corresponding to the attack at the Pentagon, and the crash of United Airlines Flight 93 in Pennsylvania. Commemorations will also include the Tribute in Light, the art installation consisting of two beams of light evoking the twin towers destroyed in the attack.

Nearly 1,800 victims’ relatives, first responders and survivors are calling on Biden to refrain from attending any memorials over his refusal to release Sept. 11 documents.

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https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/7/20/erdogan-calls-for-us-support-for-turkey-to-protect-kabul-airport

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What happens if the Taliban wins in Afghanistan?

The Taliban said it has seized control of 85 percent of territory in Afghanistan, a declaration government officials dismissed as part of a propaganda campaign.

But local Afghan officials said Taliban fighters, emboldened by NATO’s withdrawal, captured an important district in Herat province, home to tens of thousands of minority Shia Hazaras.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called on the United States to meet “conditions” including financial, logistical and diplomatic support, so that Turkey can run and guard Kabul airport after other foreign troops withdraw from Afghanistan.

Turkey has offered to deploy troops to the airport after NATO fully withdraws and has been in talks with the US for several weeks.

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Ahmad Massoud

The young politician Ahmad Massoud is following in the footsteps of his father, the celebrated mujaheddin leader who was assassinated in 2001.

Also known as the Northern Alliance — the younger Massoud wants to build a grand coalition of anti-Taliban elements that can oppose the insurgents politically at first, and militarily if necessary.

Massoud thinks the US has been too quick to grant concessions to the Taliban while excluding other Afghans in the peace talks, leaving the militants poised to expand their influence into any void left by departing American forces.

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