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Kabul Duck Alert 2: Pictures of birds and birdwatchers at the Kol-e Hashmat Khan wetland

The springtime migration of birds over Afghanistan is in full swing. The Kol-e Hashmat Khan wetland in south Kabul is an internationally important site for tired waterbirds to stop and rest, and build up their strength. Soon, they’ll be heading north again, crossing the Hindu Kush mountains to reach their summer breeding grounds in Central […]

25 Apr 2016 Kate Clark • Context and Culture

Kabul Duck Alert: Afghan capital still important stopover for migrating waterbirds

It is springtime which means birds in great numbers are migrating northwards over Afghanistan. The wetland in the south-east of Kabul city, Kol-e Hashmat Khan, is an internationally important place for water birds to rest and recuperate before taking back to the air and resuming their flight over some of the world’s highest mountain ranges. […]

24 Apr 2016 Kate Clark • Context and Culture

A Shaken City: On the Taleban‘s truck-bomb attack in Kabul

The explosion which shook Kabul on 19 April 2016 was so large  its reverberation could be felt throughout almost the entire city. All that day, and the next, the death toll continued to rise. Official figures currently stand at 68 killed and 347 injured, but the real numbers are likely to be higher. The scale of the […]

21 Apr 2016 Martine van Bijlert • War and Peace

Under the Mountain: A pre-emptive Taleban spring offensive in Shindand

Throughout March 2016, Shindand district in Herat province witnessed heavy fighting. Clashes between two rival insurgent groups were followed by a string of ANSF military operations. With substantial help from Quetta, the local pro-Mansur Taleban group has swept away a pro-Rasul outfit that had recently proved less aggressive towards the government. This new outbreak of […]

20 Apr 2016 Fabrizio Foschini • War and Peace

Education and Health Care at Risk: UN report paints grim picture of post-transition Afghanistan

A new UN report highlights how access to healthcare and education in Afghanistan, particularly for children, is being increasingly compromised by violence, threats, intimidation and abuse of facilities. The number of verified incidents over the last three years (2013-2015) in particular shows an increase in recorded incidents of threats and intimidation, as well as a continued […]

18 Apr 2016 AAN Team • Rights and Freedoms

Security Jam – 2016 (April 25 – 28)

The Security Jam is a global brainstorming session on today’s security challenges. The Jam — spanning topics from development and human rights to security and defence — unfolds entirely in writing between April 25th and 28th. The Jam will feed into the EU’s thinking on a new Global Strategy on Foreign and Security Policy and into NATO’s […]

18 Apr 2016 admin • Events

Operation Omari: Taleban Announced 2016 Spring Offensive

The Taleban made their yearly spring offensive announcement on 12 April 2016. The statement attributed to Taleban leadership council (Rahbari Shura) named the offensive “Operation Omari,” in honour of the movement’s late leader and provides clues with regard to both the Taleban’s plans and the way they wish to present themselves. Of particular note are the […]

14 Apr 2016 AAN Team • Borhan Osman • War and Peace

Were British Police Involved in Targeted Killings? New report presents fresh evidence

The allegation that a British civilian policing body, the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), helped draw up lists of Afghans for targeted killings in ISAF’s ‘kill or capture’ strategy in Afghanistan has re-surfaced. Two years ago, SOCA denied to a London court that it had supplied such intelligence for targeted killings in a case brought […]

11 Apr 2016 Kate Clark • Rights and Freedoms

Violence in Badakhshan Persists: what last year’s Jurm attack still tells us about insecurity in the north

On the one year anniversary of a major attack in Jurm in April 2015, and not long before the Taleban are expected to announce their new spring offensive, Badakhshis are nervously anticipating the year ahead. AAN guest author Bethany Matta revisits the attack, detailing how it happened and showing how the attack and its aftermath […]

10 Apr 2016 Bethany Matta • War and Peace

Filling NUG Vacancies: Parliament to vote on Interior Minister and Attorney General

With two international conferences that will decide about future support levels for Afghanistan at the horizon, and a surprisingly high number of key positions still held by caretakers or politically vulnerable individuals, the NUG has moved to fill two posts that are central to the government’s key undertakings: Interior Minister, which plays an important role […]

8 Apr 2016 Ehsan Qaane • Salima Ahmadi • Thomas Ruttig • Political Landscape

07 April 2016, University of Kent – Annual Conference: Conflict Termination to Conflict Recurrence, A Multidisciplinary Approach to Analysing Post-Conflict Societies

AAN’s co-director Dr Sari Kouvo will be one of the panelist for the discussion on “Who Is A Victim, Who Is A Perpetrator: transitional justice in post-conflict societies” at the The University of Kent: Brussels School of International Studies Annual International Conference. The panel will focus on the issue of how the construction of victim and perpetrator identities affect […]

4 Apr 2016 admin • Events

Afghanistan’s Returning Refugees: Why are so many still landless?

More than 5.8 million Afghans, about 20 per cent of Afghanistan’s population, are refugees who have returned home since the fall of the Taleban according to UNHCR figures. Many found their houses destroyed or occupied, or discovered that a new set of laws had scrapped their tenancy rights. The government plan for distributing land to […]

29 Mar 2016 Jelena Bjelica • Migration

31 March: AAN in Bremen on „Secure Zones in Afghanistan?“

„Secure Zones in Afghanistan?“ Presentation and discussion with AAN co-director Thomas Ruttig (in German)   Time: Thursday, 31 March 2016, 7:00pm   Venue: Gewerkschaftshaus, Bremen Bahnhofsplatz 22 – 28 / Haupteingang: An der Weide Tivoli-Saal   Organisers: Afghanisch-Deutsche Kulturinitiative e.V.,
 Bremer Informationszentrum für Menschenrechte und Entwicklung (biz), DGB Bremen, Flüchtlingsrat Bremen,
Bremer Friedensforum   Afghanistan, after Syria, […]

29 Mar 2016 Thomas Ruttig • Events

Member of AAN’s advisory board Ann Wilkens on the Afghan minors seeking asylum in Sweden – March, 2016

Ambassador Ann Wilkens, member of AAN’s advisory board and the former Swedish Ambassador to Afghanistan and Pakistan discusses the case of Afghan minors seeking asylum in Sweden. Note: In the first answer if the figures are not very audible. She said that around 15 percent of the Swedish population is born outside Sweden.  

29 Mar 2016 AAN Guests • Podcasts

AAN’s Obaid Ali on the security in Kunduz – February, 2016

AAN’s assistant country director Obaid Ali discusses security in Kunduz and insurgency in the north.  

23 Mar 2016 Obaid Ali • Podcasts

Happy Nawruz! A blessed year 1395 to our readers

Dear readers and friends, the AAN team wishes you a blessed, healthy and hopefully more peaceful Afghan year 1395. This year spring has come early and many trees are already in full bloom. But this is no reason to abandon the tradition of getting some pink tulips from the north, Afghanistan’s new year flowers, to mark the beginning […]

20 Mar 2016 AAN Team • Context and Culture

Afghanistan in World Literature (IV): Weird Tales from the Frontier

Throughout the last couple of centuries, the way foreign authors, both novelists and scholars, have portrayed Afghans has had an impact on how Afghanistan itself is perceived. One such writer, a bestseller in his day, although now less well known, is the 1920s-30s fantasy and adventure writer, Robert E Howard. His novels stand out, says […]

18 Mar 2016 Fabrizio Foschini • Context and Culture

Clinics under fire? Health workers caught up in the Afghan conflict

Those providing health care in contested areas in Afghanistan say they are feeling under increasing pressure from all sides in the war. There have been two egregious attacks on medical facilities in the last six months: the summary execution of two patients and a carer taken from a clinic in Wardak by Afghan special forces in […]

15 Mar 2016 Kate Clark • Rights and Freedoms

Helmand (2): The chain of chiefdoms unravels

In Helmand in the second half of 2015, the ‘dominos’ started to fall, with successive areas of the province coming under Taleban control. During the United States surge, a line of ‘chiefdoms’ was created, where Afghan National Police (ANP), Afghan Local Police (ALP) and militia commanders managed to consolidate control of local areas. In 2015, […]

11 Mar 2016 Rahmatullah Amiri • War and Peace

Helmand (1): A crisis a long time coming

The rapid fall of entire areas of Helmand to the Taleban during the second half of 2015 and early 2016 has left the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) scrambling to hold the line and try to push back, and led to international forces deploying troops to the province. Guest author Rahmatullah Amiri* brings a special […]

10 Mar 2016 Rahmatullah Amiri • War and Peace