Rashid Khan
Tolo News: Afghanistan National Cricket Team won the ODI series against Ireland as it defeated its rival by 36 runs in the last match on Tuesday. It was Rashid Khan’s magic that changed the direction of the match and helped Afghanistan to sweep the series 3-0 in its favor. Click here to read more (external link).
Nader Naderi
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
January 26, 2021
Afghan government negotiators are accusing the Taliban of stalling peace talks in Qatar as frustration builds in Kabul over continued militant attacks.
Negotiators from the two sides have made halting progress since direct talks began in the Qatari capital, Doha, in September against the backdrop of rising violence and calls for a cease-fire.
“Peace and ending the violence are our people and government’s top priority,” tweeted Afghan government negotiator Nader Nadery on January 26.
However, he claimed the Taliban has not joined formal meetings in Doha for nine days and is “not willing to engage in talks to end the conflict and save lives.”
The Taliban called the suggestion that it was delaying talks “false” and said the two sides are in touch with each other.
“No negotiations can be continuous and happening on a daily basis, since there may also be need for internal meetings,” said the spokesman for the Taliban’s Doha office, Mohammad Naeem, according to AFP.
The on-and-off talks in Qatar come as President Joe Biden’s new administration in the United States says it is reviewing an agreement reached with the Taliban last year to determine if the militant group is meeting its commitments, including reaching a cease-fire and engaging in meaningful negotiations with the Afghan government.
Under a U.S.-Taliban deal reached last February, all foreign forces are to leave Afghanistan by May 2021 in exchange for security guarantees from the militant group, including severing ties with Al-Qaeda.
The Afghan government said it welcomed the Biden administration’s review of the U.S.-Taliban agreement.
With reporting by AFP
Baradar
Ariana: The Taliban’s head of its political office, Mullah Baradar Akhand and an accompanying delegation arrived in Iran on Monday for talks with Iranian officials. The Taliban’s spokesman Mohammad Naeem said they would discuss relations between the two countries; the issue of Afghan refugees in Iran; and the current political and security situation in Afghanistan. Click here to read more (external link).
Al Qaeda leader, Ayman al-Zawahri
Tolo News: The US Treasury Department said that the al-Qaeda is gaining strength in Afghanistan while “continuing to operate with the Taliban under the group’s protection.” “Al-Qaeda broadly still depends on donations from likeminded supporters, and from individuals who believe that their money is supporting humanitarian or charitable causes,” it said in a report released on January 4. Click here to read more (external link).
Ariana: The EU-Delegation in Kabul announced additional support in the form of 35 million euros to tackle the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic and mitigate its socioeconomic impacts in Afghanistan. The EU said in a statement on Tuesday that since the start of the pandemic it has mobilised almost 147 million euros to address the immediate health crisis and provide humanitarian assistance to the people in need. Click here to read more (external link).
Amrullah Saleh
Ariana: Amrullah Saleh, First Vice President has rejected the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction’s (SIGAR) report over the smuggling of cash from the Hamid Karzai International Airport. In his daily 6:30 am meeting, Saleh stated: “However a massive amount of foreign currency does exit Afghanistan’s porous land borders by cross-border networks. Click here to read more (external link).
Nimatullah Ahmadi
Abubakar Siddique
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
January 25, 2021
BROUGHIL, Afghanistan — One of the world’s most isolated communities in northeastern Afghanistan is facing unprecedented hardships because of disease, a harsh winter, grinding poverty, and food shortages.
Residents of the Wakhan Corridor say the coronavirus pandemic has considerably increased their problems in the region, which already suffered from isolation and underdevelopment.
Wakhan is a narrow strip of territory that includes the Pamir Mountains. The sparsely populated region connects Afghanistan to western China while separating eastern Tajikistan from northwestern Pakistan.
Considered the world’s rooftop because of its elevation, the region is so remote that it was hardly touched by the various cycles of war in Afghanistan over the past four decades. Violence never made it to Wakhan. But the problems of the impoverished country are manifold for the region’s estimated 15,000 residents.
Wakhan’s predominant Wakhi farmers and Kyrgyz nomads have no healthcare, education, or other services. Winters snow cuts the region off from the rest of Afghanistan for months. Last year, the pandemic kept most of the adventure tourists away, which virtually dried up the local revenue stream.
“We have buried at least 70 people because of the disease caused by the coronavirus,” Abdul Qudus, head of a development committee in Broughil, one of the few villages in Wakhan, told Radio Free Afghanistan. “These included women and children.”
Qudus buried his 25-year-old daughter last week after she died from a protracted illness. “We still have many people in a coma, many have chest infections while other suffer from bloody diarrhea, headaches, and other chronic symptoms.”
In the absence of any hospitals or testing facilities it difficult to confirm Qudus’ claim or the prevalence of COVID in Wakhan, but the region’s residents had some contact with outsiders last summer when the pandemic raged across Afghanistan. Coughing children and wheezing adults are everywhere.
Amid the grinding poverty, keeping oneself warm against the subzero temperatures is a major challenge and makes the difference between succumbing to or surviving the harsh winter. Subsistence farming and animal husbandry barely keep the Wakhanis alive. Many suffer from severe vitamin deficiencies and a lack of other vital micronutrients.
Mah Geen, a 67-year-old grandmother, recently lost two of her five grandchildren to respiratory illnesses. “My three grandchildren are sick with chest infections right now, but we don’t have medicines or a hospital here,” she told Radio Free Afghanistan. “We cannot even leave our house because it is so cold.”
Eirgen Berdee, a leader of the Kyrgyz nomads in Wakhan, says their community is losing too many children to diseases. He told Radio Free Afghanistan that his community is paying a high price because of hunger and disease.
“We usually only eat flat bread with black tea and are deprived of nourishing diet,” he said. “We do often lack vital vitamins,” he added. “This is why we lose many of our newborn and young children every winter.”
Afghan officials in Wakhan estimate that cold, hunger, and disease has so far killed more than 100 residents of the remote district this winter. The number showcases the extreme vulnerability of residents who are too far from anywhere to even contemplate migration.
Officials in Badakhshan Province say they are doing whatever they can to help. Mohammad Noor Khawari, a physician and provincial head of the Public Health Ministry, visits Wakhan whenever he can get a helicopter ride from the provincial capital some 400 kilometers away.
“There is no road access here. The people here do not even know fruits and vegetables, which results in chronic vitamin deficiency,” he said. “I have now brought them ample vitamin supplies to help them overcome this,” he added, as he tends to many coughing children and women inside a dimly lit room.
Last week, Ghulam Bahauddin Jilani, the state minister for disaster management and humanitarian affairs, attempted to alleviate some of the region’s suffering by bringing in food, blankets, and medicines in a rare aid mission.
“Today we witnessed the distribution of cash, food, medicines, and other material to 154 families of Pamir Khurd,” he told Radio Free Afghanistan while alluding to a part of Wakhan that is locally known as Small Pamir. “We expect to extend similar assistance to some 1,900 families across Wakhan and other vulnerable regions.”
Although Wakhan residents welcome the assistance, they say it is not enough. They say the region needs to be connected to the rest of the country through a road link that can be kept open year-round and Kabul needs to provide them with healthcare, education, and other basic services.
Kabul, however, has few resources to undertake such investments on its own. A proposed trade corridor linking Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Tajikistan to China through Wakhan could eventually change its destiny.
Abubakar Siddique wrote this story based on Radio Free Afghanistan correspondent Nimatullah Ahmadi’s reporting from Badakhshan, Afghanistan.
Winter in central Afghanistan can be a struggle for hundreds of cave dwelling families. VOA’s Zafar Bamiyani brings us this report from Bamyan province, narrated by Bezhan Hamdard.
Radio Free Afghanistan
January 25, 2021
KABUL — Afghan officials say a vehicle carrying Afghan employees of the Italian Embassy in Kabul has been hit by a bomb blast in the capital.
Police officials told RFE/RL on January 25 that the driver of the vehicle was wounded in the morning explosion.
A source at the Kabul Police Command said the blast was caused by a magnetic “sticky” bomb attached to the vehicle.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
The Italian Embassy has not yet commented on the incident, which comes amid a string of targeted killings that have swept the country in recent months.
Many of those being targeted are civilians — journalists, rights activists, cultural figures, moderate religious leaders, and women in public roles.
In early December, the Russian Foreign Ministry said several workers of its embassy staff in Kabul were wounded when a car belonging to the diplomatic mission was hit by a blast.