Ariana: Kai Eide, former head of UNAMA has pointed a finger at Afghanistan’s leaders and said there is little unity among them and that hostile statements made could undermine the peace process. Referring specifically to the first vice president, Eide said: “I see Amrullah Saleh, the vice president, constantly (making) what I would call rather
Ariana: Afghan Miniature artists have urged the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to include Afghanistan in its Persian Miniature cultural heritage listings alongside other countries in the region. This comes after UNESCO’s Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage Committee last week listed Persian Miniature as intangible heritage of Iran, Turkey, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan. Afghanistan
Ayaz Gul VOA News December 23, 2020 ISLAMABAD – Officials in Afghanistan say gunmen Wednesday killed the head of an independent elections watchdog in Kabul, the latest casualty in a string of mostly unclaimed recent attacks against prominent civilians. The violence has claimed the lives of dozens of people, particularly in the Afghan capital. The
Ayaz Gul VOA News December 19, 2020 ISLAMABAD – UNICEF has struck a rare agreement with the Taliban in war-ravaged Afghanistan to establish thousands of informal schools in areas controlled by the Islamist insurgent group. The program will reach up to 140,000 Afghan boys and girls, said Sam Mort, the agency’s chief of communications, advocacy
Ayaz Gul VOA News October 27, 2020 ISLAMABAD – The United Nations says the conflict in Afghanistan has killed and injured nearly 6,000 civilians during the first nine months of 2020, representing a 30% decline compared to the same period last year. The report compiled by the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) comes as
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty September 24, 2020 Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has urged the world to help his country achieve peace amid talks with the Taliban aimed at ending nearly two decades of conflict. In a prerecorded speech to the UN General Assembly delivered on September 23, Ghani said the Afghan government had demonstrated the
AA: In its latest National Human Development Report on mineral extraction in Afghanistan, the UN Development Program said the war-ravaged country could have collected over $100 million from minerals in royalties and export duties alone on a yearly basis. It said control of mineral extraction by insurgent groups such as the Taliban and Daesh/ISIS as
Ayaz Gul VOA News August 21, 2020 ISLAMABAD – Pakistan has issued an order for full compliance with U.N. Security Council sanctions against Afghanistan’s Taliban and groups associated with the Islamist insurgency. The directives are contained in a “statutory notification” (SRO) that was published by the foreign ministry on its website earlier in the week
UN: The death of nine human rights defenders since the beginning of this year marks “the emergence of a truly alarming trend”, an independent UN rights expert said on Friday, calling on Afghanistan to prevent any further killings. “Already by August, Afghanistan has far exceeded last year’s figures”, said Mary Lawlor, Special Rapporteur on the
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty July 30, 2020 The United Nations says that more than 100,000 people fled conflict inside Afghanistan’s borders so far this year amid continued violence, despite an agreement between the United States and the Taliban intended to pave the way for intra-Afghan peace talks. The UN Office of Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs