All posts tagged: Afghanistan

EU concerned about terrorist groups in Afghanistan

EU concerned about terrorist groups in Afghanistan

Published by Sam Flores

Washington —  Editor’s note: this story was translated from the original VOA Dari article. The European Union says it is concerned about the presence and activities of terrorist groups with regional and potentially global reach, including the Islamic State Khorasan Province (IS-K) in Afghanistan. EU Special Envoy Thomas Frellesen “underlined the importance that the de facto authorities [the Taliban] deliver on their commitment that Afghan territory will not be used to threaten the security of any other country,” the EU delegation in Afghanistan said in a statement Monday, as Frellesen concluded a two-day visit to the South Asian country. The United Nations, in an August report, warned that the “ability of numerous terrorist groups to operate” in Afghanistan is an enduring threat to neighboring countries and the Central Asian region. Pakistan Taliban Tensions The statement said that the EU envoy to Afghanistan called on Afghanistan and Pakistan to restart talks to address their security concerns. The Pakistani government and the Afghan Taliban continue to trade accusations amid recent border clashes and Pakistani airstrikes in Afghanistan. …

Taliban Suspends BBC Broadcasts Across Afghanistan

Taliban Suspends BBC Broadcasts Across Afghanistan

Published by Sam Flores

Washington —  Editor’s note: this story was translated from the original VOA Pashto article. The Taliban has suspended British Broadcasting Corporations’ (BBC) FM radio broadcasts across Afghanistan, the broadcaster confirmed in a statement on October 13. “Millions of people across Afghanistan rely on the BBC for accurate news and information and we are working with the authorities to address the situation,” the statement said. Khubib Ghufran, the spokesperson for the Taliban government’s Information and Culture ministry, said the BBC’s broadcast had been suspended for the “time being due to repeated violations,” but did not provide details about the alleged violations. The BBC had been the only major international broadcaster operating on FM radio in Afghanistan since the Taliban banned Voice of America (VOA) and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) from domestic broadcasting in 2022. Despite those restrictions, VOA has continued providing daily news to Afghan audiences through alternative distribution methods. The broadcaster transmits radio programs through medium-wave transmitters located outside Afghanistan and delivers television content to Afghan audiences via satellite. The suspension of the BBC’s …

US says Taliban failing to combat human trafficking in Afghanistan

US says Taliban failing to combat human trafficking in Afghanistan

Published by Sam Flores

Washington —  Editor’s note: this story was translated from the original VOA Dari article. The United States says the Taliban government in Afghanistan does not ‘fully’ meet the minimum standards for combating human trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so. In the U.S. State Department’s 2026 Trafficking in Persons Report, released on Thursday, Taliban-ruled Afghanistan remained in Tier 3. During the reporting period, from April 2025 to March 2026, “… there was a pattern of recruitment and use of child soldiers in combat and support roles and a pattern of sexual slavery (bacha bazi — a practice in which men exploit boys for social and sexual entertainment),” the report said. Tier 3 refers to countries where government agencies and other public sector institutions do not fully comply with the minimum criteria for combating human trafficking and do not make significant efforts to improve the situation. The report listed 20 countries, including Afghanistan, Iran, Russia, Cuba, Venezuela, Sudan and South Sudan, in Tier 3. The State Department said the Taliban did not take …

Malnutrition is worsening in Afghanistan

Malnutrition is worsening in Afghanistan

Published by Sam Flores

Washington —  Editor’s note: this story was translated from the original VOA Pashto article. Afghanistan faces a “serious and widespread” malnutrition problem, where more than 3.7 million children under the age of five face severe malnutrition, says a Kabul-based World Health Organization official. “The number has increased this year to 3.7 million, and it is projected to increase even further in 2027,” said Ahmad Shakir Nasiry, national professional officer for nutrition for WHO in Kabul. UNICEF reported last month that the malnutrition situation has worsened in Afghanistan, where about 1 million children, among the 3.7 million, are “with life-threatening severe acute malnutrition.” The crisis “disproportionately affects the youngest and most vulnerable,” said Tajudeen Oyewale, UNICEF Representative in Afghanistan, in a statement, as four out of five children suffering from acute malnutrition are under the age of two. Nasiri said that the malnutrition problem exists throughout the country, but conditions are particularly severe in the provinces of Helmand, Kandahar, Zabul, Paktika, Daikundi, Uruzgan, Kunduz, and Baghlan. He said poverty and poor diets are the main causes …

25 years after 9/11, al-Qaeda regroups in Afghanistan

25 years after 9/11, al-Qaeda regroups in Afghanistan

Published by Sam Flores

Al-Qaeda’s plans for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks took root in dusty, mud-walled compounds in Afghanistan that served for years as terrorist training camps. A quarter-century later — despite decades of U.S. military and counterterrorism operations aimed at eradicating those strongholds — al-Qaeda is again operating training camps in Afghanistan, according to U.S. and Western intelligence officials and a United Nations organization responsible for monitoring terror networks. Source link

A Silver Lining in Afghanistan

A Silver Lining in Afghanistan

Published by Daniella Wilson

Five years ago, the United States was completing its chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan when the terrorist group known as the Islamic State Khorasan Province carried out one last murderous strike. ISKP’s suicide attack on the Kabul International Airport killed 13 U.S. service members and about 170 desperate Afghan civilians trying to flee the Taliban’s oppressive rule. The carnage was a final reminder of what the American military had been doing in Afghanistan to begin with. An Afghanistan ruled by the Taliban, American policy makers feared, would become a haven for terrorists, as it was before the U.S. invasion in 2001. In the 1990s, the Taliban had offered sanctuary to al-Qaeda and like-minded networks, allowing them to train thousands of fighters and plot devastating assaults, including the 1998 embassy bombings, the 2000 attack on the USS Cole, and 9/11. For 20 years, concerns that such attacks might resume kept the U.S. fighting a war that its officials knew they were losing. In April 2021, William Burns, President Biden’s CIA director, warned that pulling out troops would …

‘We are still here’: a day in the life of 12 Afghan women

‘We are still here’: a day in the life of 12 Afghan women

Published by Sam Flores

The soldier stripped of her uniform double quotation mark I still dream that I am wearing my uniform and going to duty Herat provinceEvery day, I wake up to the silence of dawn. I feel as though I am still holding my weapon. I lie on my bed for a few moments, taking deep breaths. With every awakening, I make a promise to myself: if my husband manages to return home safely today, I will thank God even more. My name is Parasto*, and I live in Herat. For six years I served here as a soldier. Within a few days of taking the city, the first thing the Taliban did to me and my female colleagues was hold a meeting and demand that we hand over our uniforms. When they took that uniform, I felt as though I had lost something grand that belonged to me; it was a profound pain. Because my husband and I served with the previous government, the Taliban have summoned him several times to question him about how many …