Month: August 2018

Climate change could turn the Middle East into a desert

AAN •

Asia News, 31 August 2018 The Italian website quotes from Reza Kazimi’s AAN piece about water shortages in Kabul: A city that is at risk of water shortages is the capital of Afghanistan. A study published yesterday by the Afghanistan Analyst Network states that if the situation is not addressed soon, climate change, together with […]

31 Aug 2018

Stridsflyg bombade afghanskt gränsområde

Sudhansu Verma •

Svenska Dagbladet, August 30 2018 AAN co-director Sari Kouvo discusses the deteriorating security situation in and returns of migrants to Afghanistan.  

31 Aug 2018

Blue Gold: The quest for household water in Kabul city

S Reza Kazemi •

Given growing water scarcity and pollution, increasing numbers of residents in Kabul city are struggling to provide enough safe water for their households. Many are forced to turn to the expanding private water business for their needs: eitherby paying for water from mobile water tankers, subscribing to local private water supply companies or buying bottled […]

30 Aug 2018

Afghanistan Election Conundrum (13): New voter registry too good to be true

Scott Warden •

One of the main goals of Afghanistan launching a new voter registration process – a key provision of the 2014 National Unity Government Agreement – was to more accurately match the number of ballot papers to the number of voters in any given area. It was hoped this would reduce the opportunities for ballot stuffing. […]

28 Aug 2018

Ex-Pentagon Adviser: US-Taliban Talks an ‘Icebreaker’

AAN •

Voice of America, 24 August 2018 Christopher Kolenda, who helped setting up the latest US-Taleban talks in Qatar, makes a number of important points, some sobering, about the talks’ context. He said, the “conversation between the U.S. government and the Taliban (…)  happened in full coordination with the Afghan government” and are “meant as an […]

24 Aug 2018

El Borak, N. Ullah and The Way to Turkestan: An AAN Context and Culture Eid Reading List

Thomas Ruttig •

After the fighting in Ghazni and the atrocity at the learning centre in Kabul’s Dasht-e Barchi neighbourhood, this is another of these Eid holidays into which many go in a subdued if not even depressed mood. We at AAN share these feelings, and our thoughts are with the relatives of the victims, their friends and […]

22 Aug 2018

On Eid al-Adha, AAN Wishes Afghanistan a Respite From War

AAN Team •

This year’s Eid al-Adha comes at a time of escalating war and bloodshed, with horrendous violence across Afghanistan. Many have lost dear ones. Many have been injured. Many have been displaced. Many have seen their houses and shops on fire or destroyed. And the scars of this appalling war will remain for men, women and […]

21 Aug 2018

Asiantuntijat: “Afganistaniin ei pidä palauttaa ketään” – Iskut kiihtyvät, kun Taliban näyttää voimaansa

Sudhansu Verma •

YLE, 17 August 2018 AAN’s Co-director Sari Kouvo discusses ceasefire in Afghanistan during Eid with the Finnish new media YLE. “Tulitauko antoi afganistanilaisille hetken aikaa hengähtää, elää lähes normaalia elämää ja käydä tapaamassa rauhassa sukulaisiaan, Göteborgin yliopiston oikeustieteen apulaisprofessori” Sari Kouvo sanoo.  

20 Aug 2018

Hitting Gardez: A vicious attack on Paktia’s Shias

Fabrizio Foschini •

Afghan Shia Muslims are feeling increasingly beleaguered after two massacres targeting their community this month. Both were claimed by the Afghan ‘franchise’ of Daesh, the Islamic State in Khorasan Province (ISKP). On 3 August, gunmen killed at least 38 men and boys during Friday prayers at a village mosque in the outskirts of Gardez city. […]

18 Aug 2018

Official list of Afghanistan’s districts

Before Afghanistan’s (delayed) 2018 parliamentary elections, the country’s Central Statistics Office (CSO) and the Independent Directorate of Local Governance (IDLG) have published a joint, consolidated list of Afghanistan’s 387 districts. The number had been controversial that far and had led to different figures used by different sources. (Some sources, for example, add the capitals of […]

16 Aug 2018

The Afghanistan Election Conundrum (12): Good news and bad news about district numbers

Thomas Ruttig •

Afghan authorities have solved one of the most long-standing and consequential problems in the country‘s complex election system: the number of districts. It is 387. This is pending a final decision by parliament, as there are some so-called ‘temporary’ districts that could boost the number. If parliament takes this issue up, however, there is a […]

16 Aug 2018

Abschiebungen nach Afghanistan: “Bundesregierung widerspricht sich selbst”

Thomas Ruttig •

Deutschlandfunk Kultur, 16 August 2018 Listen to an audio file and read a summary of an interview with AAN’s Thomas Ruttig about the security situation in Afghanistan after the Taleban attack on Ghazni and the ongoing German deportations of Afghans back to the country on one of the German public broadcasters (in German): In Afghanistan […]

16 Aug 2018