In the wake of an attack against a mosque in Kohat, Pakistan hit targets in Afghanistan. At the heart of this new escalation is the Ittehad-ul-Mujahideen Pakistan, an alliance of various jihadi groups, including al-Qaida, which has a strong presence according to the UN. Bishop Shukardin says that places of prayer should be respected.
Despite criticism from several international organisations, Pakistan launched the second phase of its forced repatriation plan for Afghan refugees, which began in 2023. The lives of Afghan human rights activists and members of the former pro-Western regime are at risk. For Pakistani authorities, expulsions are a way to pressure the Taliban, accused of supporting terrorist groups operating in Pakistan.
A $10 million bounty was offered for Sirajuddin Haqqani, leader of the Haqqani network. For Taliban officials, this is a quid pro quo for the release of a US hostage, but according to some observers, Washington could reopen its embassy in Kabul. Meanwhile, the rift between the Haqqani network and Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada is widening.
The directive applies to both Card holders and those without documents. From 1st April they will be forcibly expelled, but the advice is to ‘leave voluntarily’ before the deadline. Human rights groups are concerned. Meanwhile, at the Torkham crossing, tribal leaders from both sides have signed a truce.
“Brave Business in a Bus” is a new project by OTB Foundation and She Works for Peace to help Afghan women build a future of independence and dignity through entrepreneurship. The aim is to provide training, support and concrete tools, despite the extremely precarious and poor conditions in Afghanistan today.
A Taliban delegation is in Tokyo to meet Japanese officials and discuss humanitarian assistance and possible investments, while the Japanese government reiterated the importance of respect for human rights. The talks, organised by a private institution, end this Sunday. Afghanistan’s opposition slammed the meeting with government officials.
The ICC chief prosecutor charged the supreme leader of the Islamic Emirate, Haibatullah Akhundzada, and Judge Abdul Hakim Haqqani of persecuting Afghan women and girls. Recently, a senior Taliban official called for reopening schools for women. This and other criticisms suggest a divided leadership.
The people involved worked with the United States in Afghanistan and had already received approval for resettlement. The programme, which grants a Special Immigrant Visa, was established in 2009 and covers the family members of selected people. The day before Trump's inauguration, 200 Afghans made it in time to leave the Philippines, where they had been moved for final paperwork.
The British journalist of Afghan-Pakistani origin in a documentary recounts the work of the Italian NGO Emergency, which since 1999 has accompanied the many dramatic pages of life in the country with its assistance to the wounded and sick. “After the bombs, today the problem of domestic and family violence emerges more and more.” Filippo Bongiovanni, anesthesiologist-reanimator: “Disproportion between care needs and available resources.”
Westerners jailed by the Islamic Republic, who are rightly an international issue, are but a fraction of the more than 8,000 non-Iranians jailed in Iran, 95 per cent of them migrants from Afghanistan. More than 70 Afghans were hanged in 2024. Other countries of origin of prisoners include Pakistan, Iraq, Turkey, Azerbaijan and India.
Although excluded from universities, Afghan women and girls could enrol in vocational schools. Now, without midwives and nurses, access to care for women becomes very complicated. When the ban was announced, the Taliban Minister of Health was in Beijing for a WHO-sponsored conference on traditional medicine.
Matuil Haq Khalis, head of Afghanistan’s environmental protection agency, called on the international community for support; for the past three years, the Taliban regime has been excluded from international fora. The intensity of floods, combined with periods of prolonged drought, is displacing more people internally, while agriculture is yielding less and less. Projects by UN agencies cover only one province in three.
A Taliban minister and the Iranian ambassador met in Kabul to discuss the return of Afghans to their country of origin, with an Afghan delegation set to travel to the Iranian capital. An NGO reported the recent killing by Iranian border guards of Afghan migrants (260 dead and wounded, according to some sources).
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