Ariana: Taliban militants captured the Arghanjkha district of Badakhshan province on Wednesday evening, sources said. The government, however, stated that the Afghan Security and Defense Forces (ANSDF) retreated from the district following two days of heavy clashes with the militants. Click here to read more (external link).
Related
Mohammad Mohaqiq
Ariana: In a statement issued on Thursday Mohaqiq said that the attacks on civilians are not justified and is “a clear example of crime against humanity and genocide.” Highlighting attacks on Sayeed-ul-Shuhada High School, Dasht-e-Barchi Maternity Ward, Maiwand Wrestling club and several attacks during prayers in Mosques, Mohaqiq said: “People who are killed in schools and educational and other centers were civilians, harmless and children, and their massacre has no justification and is a clear example of a crime against humanity and genocide.” Mohaqiq’s statement comes a day after Daesh militants attacked a HALO Trust camp in northern Baghlan province. Click here to read more (external link).
Related
Tolo News: Afghanistan’s U-20 (under 20) national football team on Wednesday left Kabul for Dushanbe, Tajikistan, for the CAFA Junior Championship, an international football competition in Central Asia. Afghans will face Uzbekistan in their first match of the competition on Friday. The tournament started in Dushanbe on June 9 and will end on June 18. Click here to read more (external link).
More Sports News
Mustafa Sarwar
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
June 9, 2021
For most of this year, the media coverage of Afghanistan has focused on the ongoing withdrawal of U.S. and NATO troops and the implications for the war-torn country’s future.
But as U.S. troops and their allies head for the exit after nearly 20 years of conflict, Afghanistan is facing a third wave of COVID-19 infections that threatens to overshadow the potential fallout of the international troop departure in a country still largely dependent on international aid.
On June 9, the Afghan Public Health Ministry said at least 51 people had died of the coronavirus in the past 24 hours. It also reported that 1,843 new cases were registered — up from 1,724 new positive cases and 54 deaths reported on the previous day. Alarmingly, 37 percent of the 5,044 samples tested over 24 hours on June 8 and 9 turned out positive for COVID-19.
These figures indicate that despite limited testing the death toll and case numbers are rapidly rising. Reports and anecdotal evidence from around the country point to acute oxygen shortages and a much higher death toll than that reported by the authorities. A lack of vaccines, widespread reluctance to accept those available, and a struggling healthcare system make the current wave a major threat to public health. The only silver lining is that more than 70 percent of an estimated 35 million Afghans are under the age of 30.
“The country’s oxygen production capacity is limited,” Acting Health Minister Wahid Majrooh warned recently. “Understand. Cooperate. Stay at home as much as possible,” he added. “Take the warnings and messages of the corona crisis seriously.” He added that compared to the previous waves the number of people visiting hospitals has increased up to 70 percent.
Taking It Seriously
Few Afghans are taking the threat of the deadly disease seriously. Abdul Fattah, 23, and his father were recently admitted to the COVID-19 hospital in the western city of Herat. Both required the help of oxygen concentrators to breathe. The doctors said that, like many patients, Fattah told them he had not taken the threat of COVID seriously before he fell ill.
Fereydoun Zadran, a physician who treats COVID-19 patients in Kabul, told Radio Free Afghanistan that the coronavirus pandemic in the country is worsening because people refuse to take it seriously.
“The first and best advice for people is to wear a mask,” he told Radio Free Afghanistan. “Try to make the most of the mask. When eating out, do not eat anything at work or at the market.”
Zadran added that people should wash their hands with soap several times a day, observe the 2 meters physical distance rule, avoid crowded places, and stay at home as much as possible. “The third wave of the coronavirus outbreak in Afghanistan could spiral out of control if people do not observe the health measures,” he warned.
Last week, President Ashraf Ghani ruled out a compete lockdown because many Afghans depend on daily wages. But authorities have closed educational institutions, marriage halls, gyms, and swimming pools. There has been no mention of mosques, where many Afghans congregate for prayers five times a day.
“Unfortunately, the third wave of the corona plunged a number of major countries in the region and the world, including India, into crisis,” Ghani said in a televised address. “And our country is facing the threat of the third wave of coronavirus.”
He attempted to assuage concerns that the country’s poor healthcare system will be unable to cope with the third wave of the pandemic. Ghani assured Afghans that his government is working to increase the capacity of hospitals, mitigate the damage caused by COVID-19 and try to return life to normal life.
They doctors are already warning of acute shortages. Abdullah Dawari, a doctor at the COVID-19 ward in the Afghan Japan Hospital in Kabul, told Radio Free Afghanistan that no hospital with COVID-19 has enough oxygen. “Ali Jinnah, Red Cross, and other private hospitals are lacking oxygen,” he said while naming the major hospitals in the Afghan capital. “They need oxygen in every possible way and by whatever means possible.”
Calls For Help
Kabul is scrambling for international help. The Foreign Affairs Ministry has called on neighboring countries for immediate assistance with medical equipment, including oxygen. Ministry spokesman Gran Hiwad told Radio Free Afghanistan that Foreign Minister Mohammad Hanif Atmar on June 4 called on Afghan ambassadors in the region to seek medical assistance.
Afghanistan has already received more than a 1.5 million doses of the coronavirus vaccines from India, China, and the global COVAX vaccine distribution program. Kabul is expecting to receive another 700,000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine this week. Most of the jabs have gone into the arms of the more than 300,000 Afghan soldiers.
In recent days, some international organizations have announced plans to assist Afghanistan with equipment and other facilities. The World Health Organization said on June 8 that it is assisting another Kabul-based hospital.
“With COVID19 cases on the rise, WHO Afghanistan has provided an additional PCR machine to the Afghan Japan Hospital to increase COVID19 capacity. Testing remains a crucial tool for detecting and containing COVID19,” the tweet added.
The third wave of COVID-19 in Afghanistan comes at a critical juncture for the country. In April, U.S. President Joe Biden announced an unconditional and complete U.S. troop withdrawal by September 11. The U.S. Central Command estimates half of the withdrawal is already complete, and it hopes to wrap up the entire process by July.
As the departure leaves behind a weak and vulnerable Afghan government, the Taliban has stepped up its attacks on Afghan forces across the country and has capture several districts in various provinces. Despite U.S. and European assurances, the withdrawal has also raised concerns about the future of military, development, and humanitarian aid to Afghanistan, which will further complicate Kabul’s efforts to contain the pandemic.
Since the detection of the first Afghan coronavirus case in early February 2020, some 85,893 people have contracted the virus while 3,356 have died of COVID-19, according to official figures.
Radio Free Afghanistan
June 9, 2021
A group of 42 rejected asylum seekers have reportedly arrived in Kabul after being deported from Germany.
The chartered flight landed in the Afghan capital at 7:48 a.m. local time on June 9, the German news agency dpa quoted an airport official as saying.
The agency reported that the 39th such deportation flight since December 2016 brings the number of failed asylum seekers to be deported from Germany to the war-torn country to 1,077.
Critics of the deportations say Afghanistan is too dangerous to return asylum seekers.
Violence has sharply increased across the country since the start of the withdrawal of international troops last month, taking a heavy toll on Afghan civilians.
The UN mission in Afghanistan says that 1,783 civilians had been killed or wounded in the country in the first three months of 2021, marking an increase of 29 percent over the same period last year.
With reporting by dpa
1TV: The outreach is largely being led by Indian security officials and has been limited to Taliban factions and leaders that are perceived as being “nationalist” or outside the sphere of influence of Pakistan and Iran, Indian newspaper Hindustan Times reported . The outreach has been underway for some months, though it continues to be exploratory in nature, the paper said. Click here to read more (external link).
Tolo News: The Afghan Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) on Wednesday said that the COVID-19 pandemic will hit its peak in the country in the next 4 weeks—adding that the people’s failure to respect health guidelines has been a key factor behind the rising number of positive cases of the coronavirus. Click here to read more (external link).
Ayaz Gul
VOA News
June 9, 2021
ISLAMABAD – Officials in Afghanistan said Wednesday that gunmen assaulted the office of an international charity clearing land mines in the country, killing at least 10 people and injuring more than a dozen others.
The overnight deadly attack on Britain-based HALO Trust’s camp occurred in the embattled northern Baghlan province, the scene of fierce fighting between Afghan security forces and Taliban insurgents.
A provincial police spokesman told VOA the victims were all Afghan citizens who work at the de-mining camp, alleging that insurgents gathered them in a room before spraying them with bullets.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid denied its involvement, saying the Baghlan-e-Markazi district where the “horrifying” assault took place late Tuesday was not controlled by the insurgents.
“We condemn attacks on the defenseless & view it as brutality. We have normal relations with NGOs, our Mujahidin will never carry out such brutal acts,” Mujahid wrote on Twitter.
The HALO Trust denounced the attack, saying more than 100 de-miners from local communities were undertaking humanitarian missions in the area.
“The (armed) group entered the camp and opened fire. Around 110 men, from local communities in northern Afghanistan, were in the camp having finished their work on nearby minefields,” the charity said in a statement it posted on Twitter.
The United Nations demanded a full investigation into the incident, in order to bring those responsible to account.
“It is repugnant that an organization that works to clear landmines and other explosives and better the lives of vulnerable people could be targeted,” lamented Ramiz Alakbarov, the U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator in Kabul.
The HALO Trust launched its Afghan operations in 1988 when the country was still under the decade long occupation of the then Soviet Union army, which ended in 1989. The organization has operations in parts of the world where there is a need to remove post-war residues like removing land mines including in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and South America.
The British-based charity says on its website it helps countries recover after conflict and clearing landmines is at the heart of its work. The group notes its completely Afghan-led program, with a workforce of 2,600 staff, has made safe almost 80% of the country’s recorded minefields and battlefields over the past 30 years.
The deadly attack on Afghan de-miners came as the Taliban have intensified battlefield operations across the country and captured more than 14 districts since the United States and its NATO allies began pulling out their troops from Afghanistan on May 1.
The violence has killed hundreds of combatants on both sides and Afghan civilians in recent weeks.
The foreign troop drawdown is expected to be completed by September 11; a deadline set by U.S. President Joe Biden in April to end nearly 20 years of U.S. involvement in the Afghan war.
On Tuesday, the U.S. military announced it had completed more than half of the retrograde process.
The drawdown stems from the February 2020 agreement Washington negotiated with the Taliban in return for counterterrorism guarantees.
The insurgents also pledged to negotiate a political settlement with other Afghan rivals to end four decades of war in the country.
But the intra-Afghan dialogue process, which started last September, has met with little success amid fears the Taliban would intensify their campaign to regain power once all U.S. and NATO troops are out of Afghanistan.
Related
Taliban militants (file photo)
By Radio Free Afghanistan
June 8, 2021
The Taliban has captured another district center in Afghanistan, adding to the insurgent group’s recent military gains since the start of the withdrawal of international troops from the war-torn country.
Government forces abandoned the center of the Dawlat Abad district in the northern province of Faryab and retreated to a nearby district, a security source told RFE/RL on June 8.
A member of the provincial council, Abdul Ahad Alibek, said the fate of more than a dozen members of the security forces remained unclear because the telecommunications system in the area was down.
Ground support was impossible because the insurgents controlled all routes leading to the district, Alibek said.
Several districts across Afghanistan have fallen to the Taliban since the beginning of the official withdrawal of the United States and other NATO troops on May 1.
Afghan officials have said the Taliban had taken control of at least two other districts — in Uruzgan and Badghis provinces — since June 6.
They also claimed on June 7 that more than 70 Taliban fighters were killed in fighting in Paktia, Baghlan, Nangarhar, Logar, and Badghis provinces in the preceding 24 hours.
U.S. President Joe Biden has given the military until September 11 to pull out all American troops from Afghanistan following two decades of war.
Marine General Kenneth McKenzie, the head of U.S. Central Command, told reporters on June 7 that the withdrawal from Afghanistan is on pace and “continuing very smoothly.”
McKenzie said the pullout was “about halfway finished,” without providing details.
With reporting by dpa, TOLOnews, and AP
Related