Roshan Noorzai VOA News October 4, 2021 WASHINGTON — The international community is renewing its focus on Afghanistan’s mineral wealth, believed to be worth more than $1 trillion, lying untapped within its often-hostile geography. This comes as the newly formed Taliban government faces a looming economic crisis in the country. The mineral deposits could potentially be
Ariana: The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) said in a report that the primary sources of income for the Taliban are narcotics, illicit mining, and other illegal activities. The report also notes that the Taliban now controls all aspects of narcotics production, which likely indicates that their total revenues are even higher. Click
By Frud Bezhan Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty September 16, 2020 The Taliban’s burgeoning financial might could make the militant group immune to pressure from the international community as it negotiates a role in postwar Afghanistan, according to a confidential report commissioned by NATO and obtained by RFE/RL. The Taliban “has achieved, or is close to achieving,
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 May 22, 2018 ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN — A new report Tuesday said Islamic State, the Taliban and corrupt power brokers in Afghanistan are making hundreds of thousands of dollars from illegal and abusive mining of talc, almost 80 percent of which is ending up in the United States and Europe. Earnings from illegal
WPR: Illegal mining has become so integral to the Taliban’s shadow government that it has established a fully functioning mining department, known as the Dabaro Comisyoon or “Stones Commission,” to manage the taxation of extracted minerals and ores. It even issues “official” Taliban-sanctioned mining licenses. Click here to read more (external link).
Noor Zahid VOA News February 1, 2017 The smuggling of Afghan minerals supplies millions of dollars to armed groups, insurgents and strongmen in the country, an Afghan anti-corruption watchdog reported Wednesday. The Afghanistan Anti-Corruption Network said in a report that militant groups last year received at least $46 million from minerals and precious stones illegally
Tolo News: Badakhshan’s mining and petroleum department on Wednesday raised concerns over the illegal extraction of gold and lapis lazuli by insurgents in the province. Badakhshan’s mining director Mohammad Akbar Anwari, who raised the matter, said terrorists and groups of armed men have accelerated the extraction of gold from mines in Raghistan district and lapis in
Scroll.in: A recent investigation by Global Witness, an international non-governmental organisation working on corruption, conflict and natural resources, claimed mining of the precious stone in this remote region is funding illegal armed groups and driving extremism and corruption. But mining has now come to a virtual standstill. The Afghan government has cut off transport of what
Reuters: Afghan Taliban militants have strengthened their grip on lucrative illegal mining operations in the north of the country, as security forces focus most of their efforts on battling the insurgency in the volatile south, officials said. Abuses by local commanders with private militias and beyond the purview of central government have also driven people into