Noor Zahid VOA News February 1, 2017 The smuggling of Afghan minerals supplies millions of dollars to armed groups, insurgents and strongmen in the country, an Afghan anti-corruption watchdog reported Wednesday. The Afghanistan Anti-Corruption Network said in a report that militant groups last year received at least $46 million from minerals and precious stones illegally
Tolo News: Badakhshan’s mining and petroleum department on Wednesday raised concerns over the illegal extraction of gold and lapis lazuli by insurgents in the province. Badakhshan’s mining director Mohammad Akbar Anwari, who raised the matter, said terrorists and groups of armed men have accelerated the extraction of gold from mines in Raghistan district and lapis in
Scroll.in: A recent investigation by Global Witness, an international non-governmental organisation working on corruption, conflict and natural resources, claimed mining of the precious stone in this remote region is funding illegal armed groups and driving extremism and corruption. But mining has now come to a virtual standstill. The Afghan government has cut off transport of what
Reuters: Afghan Taliban militants have strengthened their grip on lucrative illegal mining operations in the north of the country, as security forces focus most of their efforts on battling the insurgency in the volatile south, officials said. Abuses by local commanders with private militias and beyond the purview of central government have also driven people into
China Dialogue: For 6,500 years Afghanistan has been famous for the brilliant blue lapis lazuli, coveted by everybody from the Egyptian pharaohs to the common jewellers of today. These days mining of the precious stone is funding illegal armed groups and driving extremism and corruption in the northern province of Badakhshan, a two-year investigation by Global Witness,