Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Reports

Reports – previously known as dispatches – are the flagship of the AAN website and our main type of publication. AAN reports are based on extensive desk and field research and provide timely and in-depth information and analysis.

Soldiers collect the bodies of killed colleagues after the Taleban attack on the Dahan Ab-e Khostak base in Jurm, Badakhshan. The process took up to ten days because of the lack of available helicopters to transport them out of the district. (Photo Credit: Local authorities, April 2015)

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

Bethany Matta •

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 […]

War and Peace Read more
Afghan parliament will vote on 9 April about a new interior minister, among others, after the previous one, Nur-ul-Haq Ulumi (here on a 2005 election poster in Kandahar) stepped down. Photo: Thomas Ruttig.

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

Ehsan Qaane • Salima Ahmadi • Thomas Ruttig •

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 […]

Political Landscape Read more
Nangarhar, 2008: Waiting in line for drinking water: people returning from Jalozai and Naser Bagh camps in Pakistan have found it difficult to find clean water in some of the places they have settled. (Photo Credit: Pajhwok)

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

Jelena Bjelica •

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 […]

Migration Read more

Happy Nawruz! A blessed year 1395 to our readers

AAN Team •

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 […]

Context and Culture Read more
Magazine cover of "Top Notch" which published Robert E Howard's stories, including Hawk of the Hill - a El Borak story in June 1935

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

Fabrizio Foschini •

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 […]

Context and Culture Read more
A surgeon displays two bullets extracted from different patients at the MSF hospital in Kunduz before it was targeted in a US air strike on 3 October 2015. (Photo: Andrew Quilty/Oculi, from MSF website)

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

Kate Clark •

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 […]

Rights and Freedoms Read more
Under threat since 2014: The Sangin district governor’s office, with hesco barriers (Source: Pajhwok Afghan News, 2015)

Helmand (2): The chain of chiefdoms unravels

Rahmatullah Amiri •

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, […]

War and Peace Read more
Zamindawar, Kajaki district. Taleban were never eliminated during the US ’surge’ from this and other areas of northern Helmand: later, they would use them as a launchpad to re-emerge. (Photo Credit: Rahmatullah Amiri, August 2013)

Helmand (1): A crisis a long time coming

Rahmatullah Amiri •

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 […]

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Provincial Governor's Office, Paktia Province. Photo: Pajhwok

The ANSF’s Zurmat Operation: Abuses against local civilians

Fazl Rahman Muzhary •

In early January 2016, an Afghan National Security Force (ANSF) operation in Zurmat, a southern district of Paktia province, resulted in civilian casualties. According to local residents, the Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers’ heavy shelling of villages they suspected to be Taleban hideouts caused the most harm. Abuses, such as beatings and the use of […]

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A view of the quadrilateral talks in Kabul. Source: Etilaat-e Ruz.

In Search of a Peace Process: A ‘new’ HPC and an ultimatum for the Taleban

Thomas Ruttig •

Afghanistan, Pakistan, China and the US – the Quadrilateral Coordination Group (QCG) – are pushing to open a new chapter in the ongoing search for a peace process for Afghanistan. The group has now met for the fourth time, although direct talks with the Taleban have yet to begin. Earlier this week, it issued an […]

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For the first time, an MP has accused a fellow MP of corruption. The case eventually went to the Attorney General, but only after the vast majority of other MPs voted to give the accused immunity from prosecution. Photo: Pajhwok archive photo.

2015 Performance of the Wolesi Jirga: Low attendance, nominal oversight

Salima Ahmadi •

The lower house of the Afghan parliament, the Wolesi Jirga, will end its winter recess and begin its next sitting on 6 March 2016. With elections delayed, the current group of MPs is likely to be in place for some time. This seemed like a good time, then, to review the lower house’s performance in 2015. […]

Political Landscape Read more
Screenshot of a Svenska Dagbladet newspaper article picture: "Refugees from Afghanistan coming ashore on Lesbos in Greece..." (Photo Credit: YANNIS BEHRAKIS / Reuters)

An Afghan Exodus (2): Unaccompanied minors in Sweden

Ann Wilkens •

The increased refugee influx into Europe is testing cooperation within the European Union, has led to attempts to close borders and is affecting domestic politics. AAN advisory board member Ann Wilkens looks at the Swedish example. Sweden has seen more asylum seekers per head of population than any other European country and liberal asylum policies […]

Migration Read more

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