Thomas Ruttig

Trump’s Iran Sanctions Trigger a Booming Cash Smuggling Business

AAN •

Bloomberg, 13 September 2018 Altaf Najafizada’s insight into how some Afghans gain from the US sanctions against Iran (most Afghans lose, many of them returning from Iran because the lack of work): For traders in Afghanistan’s main currency exchange, U.S. sanctions against Tehran have created the ultimate arbitrage play — one that involves frequent trips […]

13 Sep 2018

Playing Fields, Sports Clubs, Gyms Becoming Afghanistan’s Bloody New Battlegrounds

AAN •

RFE/RL, 12 September 2018 Quotes from AAN’s Ali Adili in this article about the recent anti-Shia terror attack wave: “The militants see these sports venues as soft targets,” says Ali Adili, a researcher at Afghanistan Analysts Network, an independent think tank in Kabul. “Striking these targets also makes headlines. More than this, these attacks may […]

12 Sep 2018

Gewalt in Afghanistan: IS verstärkt Anschläge gegen Schiiten

Thomas Ruttig •

Tageszeitung, 12 September 2018 Thomas Ruttig’s op-ed regarding the fears and preparations among the Afghan Shia community about more possible IS attacks during the current month of Muharram. He also says that such type of terrorist attacks overshadow widespread current fighting in a number of Afghan provinces (in German).

12 Sep 2018

The Taliban’s Fight for Hearts and Minds

Thomas Ruttig •

Foreign Policy, 12 September 2018 “The militants’ new strategy is to out-govern the U.S.-backed administration in Kabul—and it’s working”, Ashley Jackson who is associated  to the Overseas Development Institute in London reports from Charkh district in Logar which is t”currently governed by the Taliban.” Locals say there is remarkably little crime. Disputes among neighbors or families are […]

12 Sep 2018

Climate change could turn the Middle East into a desert

AAN •

Asia News, 31 August 2018 The Italian website quotes from Reza Kazimi’s AAN piece about water shortages in Kabul: A city that is at risk of water shortages is the capital of Afghanistan. A study published yesterday by the Afghanistan Analyst Network states that if the situation is not addressed soon, climate change, together with […]

31 Aug 2018

Ex-Pentagon Adviser: US-Taliban Talks an ‘Icebreaker’

AAN •

Voice of America, 24 August 2018 Christopher Kolenda, who helped setting up the latest US-Taleban talks in Qatar, makes a number of important points, some sobering, about the talks’ context. He said, the “conversation between the U.S. government and the Taliban (…)  happened in full coordination with the Afghan government” and are “meant as an […]

24 Aug 2018

El Borak, N. Ullah and The Way to Turkestan: An AAN Context and Culture Eid Reading List

Thomas Ruttig •

After the fighting in Ghazni and the atrocity at the learning centre in Kabul’s Dasht-e Barchi neighbourhood, this is another of these Eid holidays into which many go in a subdued if not even depressed mood. We at AAN share these feelings, and our thoughts are with the relatives of the victims, their friends and […]

22 Aug 2018

Official list of Afghanistan’s districts

Before Afghanistan’s (delayed) 2018 parliamentary elections, the country’s Central Statistics Office (CSO) and the Independent Directorate of Local Governance (IDLG) have published a joint, consolidated list of Afghanistan’s 387 districts. The number had been controversial that far and had led to different figures used by different sources. (Some sources, for example, add the capitals of […]

16 Aug 2018

The Afghanistan Election Conundrum (12): Good news and bad news about district numbers

Thomas Ruttig •

Afghan authorities have solved one of the most long-standing and consequential problems in the country‘s complex election system: the number of districts. It is 387. This is pending a final decision by parliament, as there are some so-called ‘temporary’ districts that could boost the number. If parliament takes this issue up, however, there is a […]

16 Aug 2018

Abschiebungen nach Afghanistan: “Bundesregierung widerspricht sich selbst”

Thomas Ruttig •

Deutschlandfunk Kultur, 16 August 2018 Listen to an audio file and read a summary of an interview with AAN’s Thomas Ruttig about the security situation in Afghanistan after the Taleban attack on Ghazni and the ongoing German deportations of Afghans back to the country on one of the German public broadcasters (in German): In Afghanistan […]

16 Aug 2018

Afghanistan Number of Deaths 1989-2017

AAN •

Uppsala Conflict Data Program, 15 August 2018 Since 1946 Afghanistan has experienced the interstate, intrastate, non-state, and one-sided categories of UCDP organised violence, with over 200,000 dead. See more figures via the link.

16 Aug 2018

Abschiebung ins Konfliktgebiet

Thomas Ruttig •

Neues Deutschland, 15 August 2018 AAN’s Thomas Ruttig in briefly quoted in the Berlin-based daily in context with the latest German deportations of rejected Afghan asylum seekers, saying that Afghanistan is a “country in war” where “areas that are safe today, can be places where attacks happen tomorrow.” »Afghanistan ist ein Land im Krieg«, befindet […]

15 Aug 2018