There is no promise to grant visas, residence permits to Afghan migrants: Turkish FM
Ariana: Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Thursday that no promise was made to grant visas and residence permits to Afghan migrants. Fidan’s comments came in response to a parliamentary question by Deniz Demir, Ankara deputy of Türkiye’s main opposition, the Republican People’s Party (CHP), Anadolu Agency reported. The question concerned allegations that “legalization of Afghan migrants and work visas for Afghans” were discussed during a meeting between the Afghan Refugee Minister Khalil-ur-Rahman Haqqani and Cenk Unal, Chargé d’Affaires and Head of Mission of the Turkish Embassy in Kabul. Click here to read more (external link).
US Lawmakers Question Whether Aid Is Benefiting Taliban
Katherine Gypson
VOA News
January 11, 2024
WASHINGTON — U.S. officials overseeing assistance to Afghanistan told U.S. lawmakers Thursday that aid is rigorously monitored to prevent financial benefits from reaching the Taliban.
“We remain extremely vigilant against attempts to divert and interfere with assistance delivery. USAID takes its duty as a steward of U.S. taxpayer dollars extremely seriously, and we hold implementing partners to the highest standards,” said Michael Schiffer, assistant administrator, Bureau for Asia, U.S. Agency for International Development.
Assurances from the U.S. State Department and USAID came after the U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) said in a January 8 letter that there were still unanswered questions about $3.5 billion in funds controlled by the Switzerland-based Afghan Fund.
SIGAR told Congress that more than a year after the Afghan Fund’s creation it had not made any disbursements for its intended purpose of benefiting the Afghan people.
According to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, “an estimated 23.7 million people — more than half of Afghanistan’s population — will require humanitarian assistance to survive in 2024.”
The Taliban took back control of Afghanistan in August 2021 following the chaotic U.S. evacuation of Kabul that ended the 20-year conflict. The United States has provided more than $2 billion in aid since that takeover.
“The Taliban is benefiting more than ever from U.S. taxpayer dollars,” said Representative Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “They steal from NGOs to enrich their fighters and to solidify their power.”
McCaul said the Taliban demand payoffs from NGOs, create fake NGOs to receive aid money and embed Taliban officials within U.N. agencies.
An October 2023 SIGAR report found evidence of that infiltration, leading to lawmaker concerns about potential corruption in the Afghan Fund.
McCaul said Thursday that SIGAR has 30 outstanding requests awaiting an answer from the State Department regarding the disbursement of aid in Afghanistan.
Thomas West, special representative for Afghanistan and deputy assistant secretary, Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs at the U.S. State Department, told the House panel that the State Department has spent more than 13,000 hours cooperating with SIGAR on its requests about aid oversight.
UN Voices Concern Over Arbitrary Arrests Of Afghan Women By Taliban Authorities For Alleged Violations Of Islamic Dress Code
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
January 11, 2024
The UN Assistance Mission to Afghanistan (UNAMA) has expressed deep concern over what it says are recent arbitrary detentions and arrests of Afghan women and girls because of alleged violations of the Islamic dress code. “Since January 1, in Kabul and Daykundi provinces, UNAMA has documented a series of hijab decree enforcement campaigns by the de facto Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice and the de facto police,” UNAMA said in a statement on January 11. It added that “large numbers of women and girls” were either warned or detained in Kabul and Dayakundi’s Nili City.
Copyright (c) 2024. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.
Tolo News in Dari – January 11, 2024
Maulana Fazlur Rehman meets Mullah Hibatullah in Kandahar
Fazlur Rehman
Khaama: Sources have confirmed that Maulana Fazlur Rehman, the leader of Pakistan’s Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, had a meeting with Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada, the leader of the Taliban. According to the source from the Interior Ministry, who requested not to be named, Maulana Fazlur Rehman expressed his desire for a meeting with Mullah Hibatullah as soon as he arrived in Kabul. This marks the first such meeting since the 2023 visit of Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, the Prime Minister of Qatar, to Kandahar in southern Afghanistan. Click here to read more (external link).
Powerful 6.4-magnitude quake jolts Afghanistan
Ariana: A powerful earthquake measuring 6.4-magnitude shook Afghanistan and neighboring countries on Thursday at 1:40pm. The quake’s epicenter was in Jurm, in Badakhshan province, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) reported. So far, there is no information about casualties or damage. Click here to read more (external link).
Blasts Hit Kabul, Balkh Leaving Several Killed
8am: At least two civilians were killed and 12 others were injured in a grenade blast in PD 18 of Kabul today, a spokesman for the Kabul security department, Khalid Zadran said. He said that an investigation is underway to arrest the perpetrator. Meanwhile, sources in Mazar-e-Sharif said that an explosion took place this afternoon (Thursday) in the city. No one has claimed responsibility for either of the blasts. Click here to read more (external link).
Terrorism, Mining, and Ethnicity: Why Taliban of Tajik origin ousting from power?
8am: If the Taliban group is supposed to create an identity for itself, it is nothing more than a radical nationalistic-religious group. Ethnic and religious background is a significant factor in determining the level of trust among the group’s members. The Badakhshani Taliban, who are predominantly of Tajik origin, do not share common ancestry with the Taliban leadership in Kandahar and Kabul and are, therefore, not considered trustworthy. The Taliban leadership worries that a shift in circumstances could spark internal disputes within their group. They fear that if the Tajik-origin Badakhshani Taliban, particularly those based in resource-rich areas of the same province, unite, they might present a significant challenge. The worry intensified when the Taliban leadership began relocating Pashtun families in Badakhshan and Takhar. Such movements have stirred unease among the local inhabitants, including the native Taliban, regarding possible ethnic tensions ahead and shifts in the area’s demographics. Click here to read more (external link).
Taliban Minister Boasts Afghan Anti-Polio Gains While Addressing Global Health Huddle
Ayaz Gul
VOA News
January 10, 2024
ISLAMABAD — A senior representative of Afghanistan’s Taliban government told a Pakistan-hosted international health conference Wednesday that his country had recorded an increase in mosquito-borne malaria and dengue fever cases, but infections caused by highly contagious poliovirus declined significantly.
Only 12 children around the world were paralyzed by wild poliovirus in 2023, all of them in Afghanistan and Pakistan — with six reported in each. The two countries, sharing a nearly 2,600-kilometer border, have not detected a polio infection this year.
“Polio is still a great challenge for both Afghanistan and Pakistan,” Qalandar Ebad, the Taliban health minister, said in his English-language speech at the first global health security summit in Islamabad.
Delegates from 70 countries worldwide, including those from the United States and the United Nations, are attending the summit in the Pakistani capital.
“We are trying our best to eradicate the polio virus from the country and fortunately we have good accomplishments in this area,” Ebad said.
The World Health Organization says the polio vaccination campaign in Afghanistan has improved in quality and outreach since the Taliban regained control of the war-ravaged country in August 2021, leading to the cessation of years of nationwide hostilities.
The Taliban minister noted that there was a “slight increase in HIV/AIDS cases” in the impoverished country, but he did not elaborate.
Ebad blamed climate change for some health emergencies facing his South Asian nation of more than 40 million people. He urged the need to assist Afghanistan and other developing countries in improving their national healthcare systems to enable them to utilize locally available expertise to combat infectious diseases.
“We are witnessing that the funding in Afghanistan is decreasing, but still, in our country, instead of national capacity [building], many international [workers] with higher salaries are recruited, though the national [workers] can perform the same tasks as internationals do,” the Taliban minister asserted.
No foreign country has recognized the Taliban, citing their bans on Afghan women’s access to education and work.
Afghanistan lost billions of dollars in foreign aid after the Taliban takeover as Western countries and international donors suspended their financial support for the country, where the health sector was primarily dependent on the funding.
In his address to Wednesday’s opening session of the summit, Pakistani Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar urged collective efforts to fight global infectious diseases like COVID-19 and climate change-induced emergencies.
Kakar said that “no state in the world, no matter how powerful it is, can meet such challenges” alone.
While addressing the gathering, Donald Blome, the U.S. ambassador to Pakistan, backed calls for a collaborative international approach to global health security.
“Coordination with partners is the most effective way to address regional and global health threats,” Blome said. He added that halting infectious disease outbreaks at their point of origin is one of the best and most economical ways to save lives. “Health is the cornerstone to the future of any thriving nation, and the United States will be a strong partner to build this future.”