The Third Pole, 1 April 2021 Reportage from Bamian, the province providing half of Afghanistan’s needs for potatoes, but being hit this winter by an approximate drop by 65% in precipitation compared with normal years: There are now concerns around water scarcity this year, as snowmelt is an important source of water for crops and […]
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AREU, February 2021 A new paper authored by Shoaib Timory. In a government with a separation of powers, independence is an indispensable feature of the judiciary. In Afghanistan, this was recognised only in the Constitution of 1964 and the Constitution of 1987 before the current Constitution mapped out a range of measures necessary to keep the judiciary and […]
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The Guardian, 24 February 2021 A moving reportage on displacement and misery of Kandaharis effected by fighting in their province. This sentence tells it all: He and his wife, Khatima, buried their daughter at the roadside, instead of in the family plot.
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Sputnik/Kyle Orton’s blog, 23 February 2021 This is the translation by Kyle Orton of the extremely interesting interview with Russia’s special Afghanistan envoy, Zamir Kabulov, conducted with the Tajik service of state-run Russian Sputnik news agency. It includes quotes like this one: We view the contemporary Taliban as a political and military movement in Afghanistan […]
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BBC, 22 February 2021 Lyse Doucet’s interview with Afghan president Ashraf Ghani, and more interesting then what the headline suggests. On her question if there was a peace deal and ceasefire in Afghanistan, would he step aside: “I have one criteria: holding of elections.” “Early elections?” “Elections.” “Does that have to come at the end […]
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PRIO Policy Brief, 17 February 2021 PRIO’s Kristian Berg Harpviken looks at the players in this concert and comes to a pessimistic view: At a time when concerted neighborly action for Afghanistan’s future is desperately needed, achieving it seems less realistic than ever. (…) The US is withdrawing militarily – with or without an intra-Afghan […]
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Hasht-e Sobh, 9 February 2021 The Kabul daily summarised the report of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) about the violent incidents during a demonstration in Behsud district, saying that “security forces” killed 11 and injured 31 unarmed protestors “without [previously] using any riot control measures on the crowd” and using “direct fire” instead. […]
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New York Times, 4 February 2021 Depressing report about a new set of militias in Balkh province (and also southern Afghanistan) that, under the control of former governor Atta, partly recruits members under the pretext of construction work, aiming at people impoverished in the Corona crisis.
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Noragric blog, 19 January 2021 This blog entry by agriculture and development specialists Gry Synnevåg and Karim Merchant warns against severe long-term food supply-related consequences as a result of the ongoing Covid19 crisis for an already impoverished population in Afghanistan where 80-90% of the population rely on self-employment and derive their livelihood and income from […]
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Kabul Now, 11 January 2021 Very interesting views on what the Taleban want, the government’s red lines and the need for an Afghan peace movement.
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New York Times, 9 January 2021 Self-explaning sub-headline. (The titel is: “Were These the Fingerprints of a Terrorist?“).
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The Diplomat, 22 December 2020 The Taleban have recently incorporated weaponised, commercially available drones into their arsenal. Franz Marty looks at how numerous, dangerous and effective they are – and finds their direct military “negligible” so far: So far, the impact of weaponized Taliban drones on the Afghan battlefield has been negligible, as there have […]
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