A new pine-nut processing factory has opened in the Afghan city of Gardez, the capital of the southeastern Afghan province of Paktia. Officials say $6 million was invested in building the facility, which they say could create up to 1,000 new jobs. Started by a private investor, it’s hoped it will further open up international markets to Afghan nut producers, with exports abroad rising after Afghanistan and China signed a $2.2 billion pine-nut export deal.
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
January 19, 2021
A spate of violence has killed more than two dozen people across Afghanistan, even as peace talks are under way between representatives of the government and Taliban militants in Qatar.
The Defense Ministry said in a statement on January 19 that four Afghan soldiers were killed overnight in Taliban attacks on checkpoints in the northern Kunduz Province.
According to the ministry, 15 Taliban fighters were also killed and 12 were wounded.
However, Ghulam Rabani Rabani, a provincial council member in Kunduz, disputed that figure, saying Afghan security forces sustained significantly higher losses with at least 25 soldiers killed in separate attacks in the Dasht-e-Archi district, including 13 soldiers and four police officers.
At least eight other soldiers were killed near Kunduz city, the provincial capital, Rabani said.
Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, said the militants were behind all the attacks. The Taliban was able to seize weapons and ammunition from the checkpoints, he said.
The discrepancy in the reported casualties could not be verified independently as Kunduz is off limits to journalists and the Taliban holds sway across most of the province’s rural areas.
In southern Helmand Province, Abdul Zahir Haqyar, a government representative in the Washer district, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen late on January 18, said Abdul Nabi Elham, the provincial governor of Helmand.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for that attack.
Separately, in southern Uruzgan Province, at least 10 people, including women and children as well as a journalist and a policeman, were wounded in the explosion of a sticky bomb attached to a motorcycle, according to Mohammad Omar Sherzad, the provincial governor.
In the capital, Kabul, a car caught fire after the apparent explosion of a magnetic device, wounding at least two people, Ferdaws Faramarz, a spokesman for Kabul police, told RFE/RL.
The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for multiple attacks in Kabul in recent months.
Taliban representatives and the Afghan government earlier this month resumed peace talks in Qatar, the Gulf Arab state where the insurgents maintain an office.
The halting talks are aimed at ending decades of conflict, but a recent spike in violence that each side blames on the other is threatening progress.
Under a deal signed in February last year by the Taliban and the Trump administration, an accelerated withdrawal of U.S. troops means that just 2,500 American soldiers will still be in Afghanistan when President-elect Joe Biden takes office on January 20.
With reporting by AP
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Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
January 19, 2021
As many as 10 million Afghan children are at risk of not having enough food to eat in 2021, a humanitarian organization said on January 19, calling for billions of dollars in aid.
Save the Children said in a statement that more than 18 million Afghans, including 9.7 million children, are in dire need of lifesaving support, including food. The group called for $3 billion in donations to pay for assistance this year.
Afghans are suffering from a combination of violent conflict, poverty, and the coronavirus pandemic. “It’s a desperately bad situation that needs urgent attention from the international community,” said Chris Nyamandi, the London-based organization’s Afghanistan country director.
Afghanistan has seen a spike in violence despite prospective peace talks between the government and the Taliban, while the pandemic has also had a catastrophic effect on millions of Afghan families.
The pandemic hugely disrupted imports, including vital household items, which in turn led to rapid inflation last year, according to a World Bank estimate.
Widespread corruption and lawlessness have also impacted on the war-wracked country’s poor economy.
Nyamandi said that, with no immediate end in sight to the decades-long war, millions of people will continue to suffer. “It’s especially hard on children, many of whom have known nothing but violence,” he added.
Nyamandi said the plight of the Afghan people is compounded by insufficient humanitarian funding pledged by wealthy nations at a conference in Geneva in November.
“Aid to Afghanistan has dropped alarmingly at a time when humanitarian need is rising. We’re now in the unsustainable position where aid falls far short of what’s needed to meet the needs of the people,” he said.
Save the Children said in a report published last month that more than 300,000 Afghan children faced freezing winter conditions that could cause to illness and death without proper winter clothing and heating.
The group provided winter kits — including fuel and a heater, blankets and winter clothes, including coats, socks, shoes and hats — to more than 100,000 families in 12 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces.
The United Nations and its humanitarian partners will seek $1.3 billion in aid for 16 million Afghans in need this year, compared to some 2.3 million who needed lifesaving assistance last year, UN Secretary-General spokesman Stephane Dujarric said this month.
“It’s a huge increase in people who need aid,” Dujarric said.
The UN says that almost 6,000 people — one-third of them children — were killed or wounded in fighting in Afghanistan between January and September last year.
With reporting by AP
AP: An angry mob ransacked a local radio station in northern Afghanistan last week after a mosque imam incited the attackers, claiming loud music played by the station had interfered with his prayer service, an international journalists group said on January 19. Click here to read more (external link).
Tolo News: The Ministry of Public Health on Tuesday reported 137 new positive cases of COVID-19 out of 2,097 samples tested in the last 24 hours. The Health Ministry stated that the cumulative total of known COVID-19 cases is 54,278, the total number of reported deaths is 2,354, and the total number of recoveries is 46,554. Click here to read more (external link).
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1TV: Afghanistan’s First Vice President Amrullah Saleh suggested on Monday that some Taliban detainees should be executed in response to rise in assassinations. Saleh said that the core reason why assassinations have increased in major cities is that the Taliban detainees think that they would be pardoned and not punished. Click here to read more (external link).
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Ariana: Former vice president Marshal Abdul Rashid Dostum has returned to the battlefield and is leading troops to fight the Taliban in Qaramqal district of northern Faryab province. In an operation led by him, parts of the district are said to have been cleared of militants within only 12 hours. Click here to read more (external link).
A ship at Chabahar Port (file photo, Press TV)
Tolo News: India has delivered a consignment of heavy equipment, including cranes, for further development of Iran’s Chabahar port, the Hindustan Times reported. The report said that this signals New Delhi’s commitment to the strategic connectivity project that can provide access to markets in Central Asia. Click here to read more (external link).