Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Month: June 2019

Before Doha 7: Afghanistan peace efforts recovering from a lull?

Thomas Ruttig •

The seventh round of United States-Taleban talks in Doha is imminent. But US-Taleban negotiations in Doha for a negotiated solution to the Afghan war have been stalling in recent rounds, after some initial progress. So far they also still exclude the third key actor, the Afghan government. Parties in the so-called intra-Afghan dialogue have also […]

War and Peace Read more
Afghan migrants, including minors, living in inhumane conditions in a Belgrade, Serbia squat. Photo: Martine van Bijlert, April 2017.

Thematic Dossier XXII: Afghan migration to Europe and beyond (2)

AAN Team •

The subject of Afghans trying to migrate to Europe and beyond may have dropped out of the headlines in the last couple of years, but AAN has continued to follow their stories. Getting into Europe and then getting across eastern Europe into the west has become much more difficult since we published our first thematic […]

Dossiers Read more

Afghanistan and the ongoing hype about Daesh

Thomas Ruttig •

TRT World, 25 June 2019 Thomas Ruttig, a co-founder of the Afghanistan Analysts Network, […] also underlines the fact that similar rumours appeared in the recent past. “Repeatedly, there were reports, more likely rumours, about massive movements of IS fighters from Iraq and Syria to Afghanistan. However, I’m sceptical. My organisation followed such reports in […]

AAN in the Media Read more

The Taliban is killing fewer civilians but a worrying new trend is emerging

AAN •

TRT World, 21 June 2019 The Turkish state broadcaster’s website reports, based on latest UNAMA reports, that civilian casualties caused by the Taleban have fallen, while those attributed to the pro-government side are rising and the Afghan government and its allies killed more civilians in the first months of 2019 than the Taleban, the first time […]

AAN in the Media Read more

How US “good guys” wiped out an Afghan family

AAN •

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, 3 June 2019 The story of a whole family killed by an American bomb – except the father, working in Iran – in a Taleban-controlled part of Jaghatu, Wardak province; another story of denial (“we don’t have a report” on a bomb drop on such-and-such day at that place). Following The Bureaus’s […]

Recommended Reads Read more

Speaking Out: Afghanistan – Rightsizing Expectations

AAN •

(U.S.) Foreign Service Journal, June 2019 Insights into US Afghanistan policy by the former acting deputy assistant secretary for Afghanistan and deputy chief of mission in Kabul – not that we did not know, but good to have it in writing, from ‘the horse’s mouth’: The turnover of U.S. diplomats and military officials, and our short […]

Recommended Reads Read more
An IEC registration officer registers a voter at Naderia High School in Kabul as the IEC launched a 22-day top up voter registration across the country on 8 June 2019. Photo: IEC Facebook page

Afghanistan’s 2019 Elections (5): Slow preparations for a high-stake election

Ali Yawar Adili •

The Independent Election Commission (IEC) has announced the new electoral calendar and started a 22-day top up voter registration process across Afghanistan. The announcement of the electoral calendar involved several key decisions, including that the IEC will hold only the presidential vote on 28 September 2019, that it will not change the electoral system ahead […]

Political Landscape Read more

Afghanistan, la difficile bataille de la paix est lancée

Thomas Ruttig •

Le Croix, 14 June 2019 Two quotes from AAN’s Thomas Ruttig in this analysis of the French daily  of the ongoing peace efforts in Afghanistan, on the US special envoy’s initial contribution to problems involving the Afghan government and about peace hopes and the disinclination of large parts of the population to return to the […]

AAN in the Media Read more
A volleyball in Mirai town during Eid in October 2012. Many people came to the district town that year after the 2012 uprising against the Taleban re-opened Andar district centre after three years. The peace was not to last: political interference and bloody violence were soon to follow. (Photo Fazal Muzhary)

One Land, Two Rules (7): Delivering public services in insurgency-affected Andar district in Ghazni province

Fazl Rahman Muzhary •

Andar district in southern Ghazni province, which has had a shadow Taleban administration since 2007, has been under virtually complete Taleban control since October 2018. The Afghan government continues to provide education and health services despite the fact that all of Andar’s government offices have relocated to Ghazni city, while the Taleban supervise their work. […]

Economy, Development, Environment Read more

The Peculiar Presence of the Islamic State in Kunar

AAN •

The Diplomat, 14 May 2019 A fascinating on-the-ground reportage from Kunar by Franz Marty about IS presence in this eastern province – a good antidote to  latest alarmist pieces about IS planning to attack the US and Russian allegations about 5,000 Daesh fighters in northern Afghanistan. According to this report, Daesh took over two villages […]

Recommended Reads Read more

Global Peace Index 2019

AAN •

Institute for Economics and Peace, 12 June 2019 The “Global Peace Index 2019” now lists Afghanistan as the least peaceful country in the world. Out of 163 countries, Afghanistan ranks 163. Afghanistan also incurred the second-largest economic cost of violence worldwide in 2018, equivalent to 47 percent of its GDP.

Recommended Reads Read more

Civilians at Greater Risk from Pro-government Forces: While peace seems more elusive?

Jelena Bjelica • Rachel Reid •

After a Ramadan stained with violence, peace seems remote. Both sides have intensified the tempo of the conflict, with civilians paying a heavy price. While the Taleban appear to be exercising more care with some tactics that protect civilians, they continue to unlawfully target civilians with others, as recent attacks demonstrate. The US and Afghan […]

Rights and Freedoms Read more

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