Publications

A Reaper drone comes into land at Kandahar Airbase (Flying Officer Owen Cheverton: 2009)

Drone warfare 1: Afghanistan, birthplace of the armed drone

Using drones to carry out targeted killings has become an integral part of the United States’ ‘war on terror’. Afghanistan in the late 1990s was the laboratory where the US developed armed drones as it searched for a way to deal with Osama bin Laden who was then ordering attacks on American targets from his […]

27 Feb 2017 Kate Clark • International Engagement

How Neglect and Remoteness Bred Insurgency and a Poppy Boom: The story of Badghis

Badghis, a far-flung province in the west of the country, was the bad surprise in the 2016 Afghanistan Opium Survey of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime. The poppy cultivation area in Badghis increased almost by 200 percent compared to 2015, contributing significantly to the overall countrywide increase of ten per cent. AAN’s Jelena […]

22 Feb 2017 Jelena Bjelica • Economy, Development, Environment

Belgrade squat, November 2016. Photo: Martine van Bijlert

Thematic Dossier XIV: Afghan migration to Europe

Recent images of migrants freezing in the cold in Greece and Serbia have made disturbing world headlines. Many of those stranded are part of the wave of Afghan migration to Europe, which gained a momentum in early 2015 and has resulted in about 250,000 Afghans arriving in Europe since then. In the past two years, […]

17 Feb 2017 AAN Team • Dossiers

Demonstration in Berlin against deportation of Afghan asylum seekers on February 11, 2017 Photo: Hadi Ahmady. (Newsgroup Afghanistan)

Afghan Exodus: Afghan asylum seekers in Europe (3) – case study Germany

Germany led in Europe in almost all categories of incoming refugees and asylum applications in 2015 and 2016, both in absolute and relative figures. Roughly six out of ten migrants who came to Europe ended up in Germany. Afghans were strongly represented in all those categories. This prompted the German government to change its 2015 […]

17 Feb 2017 Thomas Ruttig • Migration

Afghan Exodus: Afghan asylum seekers in Europe (2) – the north-south divide

The situation and number of Afghan migrants in Europe differed from country to country in 2016. The division lay, roughly, along the Alps. To the south, the number of incoming migrants, though still high, dropped but requests for asylum continued to rise in some countries. Living conditions, meanwhile, deteriorated sharply. To the north, much fewer […]

15 Feb 2017 Thomas Ruttig • Migration

Locked out from the EU – Afghan and Pakistanis migrants (with a few Bangladeshis and a Nigerian) standing in line for supplies in a Belgrade, Serbia squat. Photo: Martine van Bijlert (Nov 2016).

Afghan Exodus: Afghan asylum seekers in Europe (1) – the changing situation

In 2016, Afghans remained the second-largest group both of migrants seeking protection in Europe and of those formally applying for asylum. Meanwhile, numbers of arrivals – both in general and in terms of Afghans – have dropped significantly, compared with the peak in late 2015, as European countries have since made getting, staying and integrating […]

13 Feb 2017 Thomas Ruttig • Migration

HIG leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. Photo: website of Shahadat daily.

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

Graves prepared for those killed during an attack claimed by Daesh/ISKP on 23 July 2016 suicide which targeted a peaceful demonstration in Deh Mazang square, Kabul. It was the single deadliest conflict-related incident for civilians recorded by UNAMA in Afghanistan since 2001. Most of the victims were Shia Hazaras (Xinhua/Rahmat Alizadah)

More Horrific Records Set: UNAMA documents another peak year of civilian casualties

More than eleven thousand civilians were killed or injured in the conflict in Afghanistan last year, setting a grisly new record – the highest number of civilian casualties recorded by UNAMA in any year since it started systematic documentation in 2009. In its 2016 annual report on the protection of civilians in the conflict, UNAMA […]

6 Feb 2017 Kate Clark • War and Peace

Photo posted recently by Taleban social media activists showing, they said, fighters in Kunduz. Vehicle carries the movement’s flag and fighters appear all to be in camouflage, while one wears a headband. (2016)

Rallying Around the White Flag: Taleban embrace an assertive identity

The Taleban appear to have woken up to the importance of organisational symbols and their political meaning. Compared to how little they cared about their image during the 1990s and the initial years of the insurgency, the Taleban now project an increasing consciousness of their ‘brand’. This is seen in both their media and the […]

1 Feb 2017 Borhan Osman • War and Peace

Backgrounder: Literature Review of Local, Community or Sub-State Forces in Afghanistan

Afghanistan’s history has long been dominated and shaped by the interaction of militias with the state. In the post-2001 era, international actors, sometimes with Afghan state cooperation, have tried to use militias to fill perceived gaps in security. Since 2002, a range of foreign-backed local, hybrid or non-state security forces (LHSFs) have emerged. They include […]

31 Jan 2017 Kate Clark • Erica Gaston • Special Reports

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