NIKKEI: …Afghan mining ministry lacks the technical and other capacity to manage and oversee such contracts, warning this could lead to a grim outlook of “corruption, mismanagement and environmental disasters.

“Taliban factions in Takhar have at times engaged in violent confrontations over control of valuable resources. Media reports said the Taliban leadership last month replaced ethnic Tajik district governors in Takhar with Kandahari Pashtuns in an effort to end the infighting. The Taliban leadership is now mainly ethnic Pashtun and based in Kandahar… Click here to read more (external link).