The calamitous scenes at Kabul’s airport, where thousands of people are scrambling to escape the Taliban before an August 31 deadline, prove the US is not concerned with the fate of ordinary Afghans, Islamist leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar told The National. With days before the US ends its 20-year presence in Afghanistan and with tens of thousands of Afghans soon to […]

Clashes erupted between the Taliban and the resistance movement on Thursday in Gulbahar, the entrance gate of Panjshir province, and both sides used heavy and light weapons. Both sides accused each other of initiating the clash. The resistance movement said the Taliban started the clashes. “The enemy attacked Panjshir province form Andarab route twice and suffered heavy casualties,” said Fahim […]

Taliban co-founder Mullah Baradar will lead a new Afghan government set to be announced shortly, Reuters reported on Friday citing sources in the Taliban. According to the report Baradar, who heads the Taliban’s political office, will be joined by Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob, the son of late Taliban co-founder Mullah Omar, and Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, in senior positions in the […]

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that there would be no political force to talk to directly if Afghanistan breaks up as a country and called for joint efforts to decide about “legalizing” a political force in the country. Putin made the comment at a forum in Vladivostok where he was asked if Moscow would recognize the Taliban government. […]

Since the Taliban took power in Afghanistan, the humanitarian emergency there has become even more dire. This briefing note outlines the most pressing issues and steps to help relieve the suffering. Dramatic scenes at the Kabul airport of Afghans desperate to leave the country, and horrific bombings there, captured the world’s attention in the weeks after the Taliban took power. […]

On 15 August, the Taliban capped their drive for power in Afghanistan by taking Kabul, the country’s capital, for the first time since they ruled most of the country from 1996 to 2001. With the previous government’s collapse, the group is now the de facto power throughout the country and is in the process of forming a new government and […]

In the wake of intense fighting and the rapid transfer of power to the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (also known as the Taliban), people are facing widespread instability, mass displacement, and the disruption of basic services, including health care. Despite the challenges, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) teams continue to provide essential medical care across all five of our […]

Clashes erupted between the Taliban and the resistance movement on Thursday in Gulbahar, the entrance gate of Panjshir province, and both sides used heavy and light weapons. Both sides accused each other of initiating the clash. The resistance movement said the Taliban started the clashes. “The enemy attacked Panjshir province form Andarab route twice and suffered heavy casualties,” said Fahim […]

China hopes the Taliban will soon establish an inclusive and representative government in Afghanistan. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin believed the new Afghan government would crack down on all kinds of terrorist forces. Xinhua news agency quoted Wang as telling reporters at a news conference on Tuesday that with the pullout of US troops, Afghanistan had turned a new […]

Qatar has warned against the isolation of the Taliban who took control of Afghanistan a fortnight ago. Al-Arabiya quoted Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani as saying on Tuesday that recognising the Taliban’s government was not a priority. “We believe that without engagement, we cannot reach…real progress on the security front or on the socioeconomic front,” the minister remarked. […]