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Talks with the Taleban, Again: This time for real?

Over the past weeks, Kabul buzzed with rumours that talks with the Taleban would begin soon, specifically, in the first week of March. That particular week is now past and nothing has happened. But this does not mean that rumours were completely false or that no movement is being made towards new talks with the […]

17 Mar 2015 Thomas Ruttig • War and Peace

The Other Guantanamo 2: the Afghan State begins Internment

Sources involved in the handover of Bagram detention facility from the United States to Afghanistan have told AAN that the Afghan state was due to start ruling on the internment of its own citizens there on 22 May 2012. The use of the US system of detention without trial by the Afghan government is probably […]

23 May 2012 Kate Clark • Rights and Freedoms

One Land, Two Rules (1): Service delivery in insurgent-affected areas, an introduction

The Taleban today control or influence whole swathes of Afghanistan. Estimates of exactly how much vary, but in the vast majority of Afghanistan’s provinces, control is split between government and insurgency. What that means for local people in terms of services usually provided by a state is the subject of a new research project by […]

6 Dec 2018 Kate Clark • Jelena Bjelica • Economy, Development, Environment

ISKP’s Battle for Minds: What are its main messages and who do they attract?

The Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) uses propaganda to carve out new space in Afghanistan and Pakistan’s already crowded jihadi landscape. It uses popular media and promotes a distinct narrative of Salafi-jihadism tailored to local preferences and focused on specific themes. In the first part of this dispatch, AAN’s Borhan Osman analyses the propaganda messages […]

12 Dec 2016 Borhan Osman • War and Peace

Thematic Dossier XXIV: Ten years of reporting on civilian casualties, still no ceasefire

As the Taleban and the United States sit down together again to discuss the possibility of a peace agreement, the issue that appears to be most pressing for Afghans is a ceasefire. Not surprising given that 2019 is likely to be the sixth year in a row when the number of civilians killed and injured […]

30 Dec 2019 AAN Team • Dossiers

One Land, Two Rules (4): Delivering public services in embattled Achin district in Nangrahar province

Achin district in the south of Afghanistan’s key eastern province of Nangrahar has been heavily fought over by the Taleban, ISKP and government and United States forces. The delivery of public services has been hampered, helped or abolished depending on who has been in charge at any given time; ISKP banned almost all public services […]

25 Mar 2019 Rohullah Sorush • S Reza Kazemi • Economy, Development, Environment

Hekmatyar taken off UN sanctions list: Paving the way for his return – and Hezb-e Islami’s reunification?

The United Nations has lifted the sanctions against Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the leader of the Islamic Party of Afghanistan. This was the next step in the implementation of the peace agreement signed by the Afghan government and Hezb in September 2016. It paves the way for the return of the former mujahedin leader, one of the […]

11 Feb 2017 Thomas Ruttig • Political Landscape

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

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 […]

29 Jun 2019 Thomas Ruttig • War and Peace

Al-Qaeda Leader Killed in Kabul: What might be the repercussions for the Taleban and Afghanistan?

President Joe Biden has announced the killing of the leader of al-Qaeda, Aiman al-Zawahri, in a drone strike. Zawahri was central to the founding of al-Qaeda, the intellectual and organisational force behind the group, key to the decision to attack US targets in east Africa, the Gulf, New York and Washington DC, and deputy and […]

2 Aug 2022 Kate Clark • War and Peace

Who Gets to Go to School? (2) The Taleban and education through time

In trying to understand Taleban policy on state education, especially for girls, our first report heard from people around the country. They painted a picture of primary schools for boys and girls, and boys’ secondary schools having generally re-opened after the Taleban captured power on 15 August, but of girls’ secondary schools opening only very patchily. […]

31 Jan 2022 S Reza Kazemi • Kate Clark • Rights and Freedoms