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Peace Leadership: Power struggles, division and an incomplete council

Afghanistan’s president, Ashraf Ghani, has approved a 46-member Leadership Committee for the High Council for National Reconciliation (HCNR), but criticisms have come in hard and fast from all quarters. The most significant rejection has come from Dr Abdullah Abdullah, who asserts his right under the power-sharing agreement to lead the peace process, including making appointments […]

6 Sep 2020 Ali Yawar Adili • Political Landscape

AAN Dossier XXVI: Big Tent ‘Democracy’ – Afghanistan’s loya jirgas, 1915 to 2020

The loya jirga – or grand assembly – has been used as a political instrument by almost every Afghan king and president for the last century, with the first held arguably in 1915 and the last, for now, in August 2020. These jirgas typically bring together hundreds, sometimes thousands of delegates from the various ethnic […]

31 Aug 2020 AAN Team • Dossiers

New special report on Afghanistan’s newest local defence force: Were “all the mistakes of the ALP” turned into ANA-TF safeguards?

Today, AAN publishes a special report looking at Afghanistan’s newest local defence force, the Afghan National Army Territorial Force (ANA-TF). Set up by presidential decree in February 2018 and funded and supported by NATO’s United States-led Resolute Support mission, it was intended to be a lightly-armed, low-cost, local arm of the ANA which could hold […]

20 Aug 2020 Kate Clark • Special Reports

AAN Obituary: PDPA leader and poet Sulaiman Layeq (1930-2020)

Sulaiman Layeq, one of the last surviving founding members of the leftist People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA), which changed the country’s history with its coup d’état in 1978, has died in late July. In 1992, he even made it to the top of the party, albeit in its final moments. The circumstances of his death […]

19 Aug 2020 Thomas Ruttig • Context and Culture

War in Afghanistan in 2020: Just as much violence, but no one wants to talk about it

As memories of the relative peace of the Eid ul-Adha ceasefire fade and direct talks between the government and the Taleban should be about to begin, it seems a good time to look again at what has been happening in the conflict since the United States and the Taleban signed their agreement on 29 February. […]

16 Aug 2020 Kate Clark • War and Peace

Doors Opened for Direct Talks with the Taleban: The results of the Loya Jirga on prisoners and peace

The three-day Consultative Peace Loya Jirga held in Kabul from 17-19 Asad 1399 (7-9 August 2020) has opened the way for the Afghan government to release a final 400 Taleban prisoners from government jails, thereby removing the last obstacle blocking direct peace talks with the Taleban. The jirga delegates did not question the stark choice the government […]

12 Aug 2020 Thomas Ruttig • Ali Yawar Adili • Obaid Ali • War and Peace

To Release, Or Not To Release? Legal questions around Ghani’s consultative loya jirga on Taleban prisoners

The Consultative Loya Jirga, called by President Ashraf Ghani to decide the fate of 400 Taleban prisoners, and whether they should be released to enable intra-Afghan peace talks, has begun. Ghani has argued that, according to the constitution and the penal code, it was not in his power to release these prisoners and therefore he […]

7 Aug 2020 Ehsan Qaane • War and Peace

Still Preoccupied by ‘Who Gets What’: 100 days of the new government, but no full cabinet

 More than two and half months since Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah signed their political agreement, and almost five months since the inauguration of Ashraf Ghani as president, Afghanistan still has no new cabinet. The list of cabinet nominees remains incomplete and parliament, which has to vote to confirm or reject nominees, has given up […]

5 Aug 2020 Ali Yawar Adili • Political Landscape

AAN wishes a peaceful and healthy Eid al-Adha to all its readers

At a difficult and uncertain time for growing numbers of people in Afghanistan, there is at last some good news: the Taleban and government have again declared a third three-day ceasefire to mark the major Islamic festival of Eid al-Adha. We acknowledge that many people who have continued to bear the brunt of this brutal […]

31 Jul 2020 AAN Team • Context and Culture

Covid-19 in Afghanistan (5): Snapshots of women’s living under coronavirus in and around Herat city

In Herat, Afghanistan’s second most-infected province, women have been disproportionately hit by the secondary effects of Covid-19. AAN researcher Reza Kazemi has been hearing from women in the province about extra care and housework, increased levels of domestic violence, greater restrictions on movement and their concerns about their children, given school closures. He also finds […]

22 Jul 2020 S Reza Kazemi • Economy, Development, Environment