Global Conflict Tracker
← Back to Conflict

Latest News

Violent Extremism in South Asia

Taliban Agrees to Qatari Evacuation Flights From Afghanistan

  • According to Qatar’s foreign minister, the Taliban agreed to allow Qatar Airways to resume evacuation flights from Kabul’s airport following a months-long suspension (Axios)

UN Secretary-General Calls on Lifting of All Transactions Necessary for Humanitarian Aid in Afghanistan

  • UN Secretary-General António Guterres called on member states to lift conditions or rules that prevent humanitarian aid from reaching Afghanistan (Reuters)
  • Meanwhile, Norway chaired a UN Security Council meeting on Afghanistan today after wrapping up three days of talks between representatives of the Taliban, Western governments, and Afghan civil society (Al Jazeera)
  • At the summit in Oslo, Western diplomats pressed the Taliban on human rights, while the Taliban called for the United States to unfreeze some $9.5 billion in Afghanistan’s foreign assets (Voice of America)

Explosion Kills Six People in Herat, Afghanistan

  • The self-declared Islamic State claimed responsibility for a blast in the city of Herat that killed six people on Saturday (Reuters)

Taliban Delegation to Attend Talks in Norway

  • The Taliban’s visit with representatives from Norway and other countries will run from Sunday to Tuesday and is expected to focus on Afghanistan’s humanitarian situation and human rights (Agence France-Presse)

UN Secretary-General Calls for Unfreezing of Afghan Assets

  • UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for a path toward the conditional release of Afghanistan’s foreign currency reserves to improve the country’s humanitarian situation (TOLOnews)

UN Seeks More Than $5 Billion to Prevent Humanitarian Catastrophe in Afghanistan

  • The aid would supply food within Afghanistan, where eight million people face “a march to starvation,” UN emergency relief coordinator Martin Griffiths said. It would also provide support for 2.5 million Afghan refugees in neighboring countries (New York Times)

Explosion in Afghanistan Kills Nine Children, Per Taliban

  • The Taliban said that an explosion on Monday in eastern Afghanistan killed nine children, and wounded four others (Associated Press)

Biden Administration Names Two Women Envoys to Afghanistan

  • Rina Amiri will serve as the United States’ special envoy for Afghan women, girls, and human rights, while Stephenie Foster will serve as senior advisor for women and girls in continued evacuation and resettlement efforts for at-risk Afghans (Al Jazeera)

Taliban Dissolves Election Commissions, Government Ministries

  • The Taliban dissolved two election commissions and government ministries for peace and parliamentary affairs (Associated Press)

UN Resolution Aims to Lift Curbs on Aid to Afghanistan

  • The UN Security Council adopted a resolution to allow aid to reach Afghanistan for one year without violating international sanctions designed to isolate the Taliban (Agence France-Presse)
  • Washington sponsored the resolution and issued its own sanctions exemptions for U.S. and international aid groups (New York Times)
  • The moves come as analysts warn of humanitarian disaster. The United Nations cautioned that more than half of the country’s population is facing extreme hunger and that nearly nine million Afghans could face famine this winter. The World Bank, which had prevented Afghanistan’s access to funding following the Taliban’s takeover, has said it will transfer $280 million to UN agencies providing aid in the country by the end of the year. Washington continues to hold more than $9 billion in frozen Afghan bank reserves (Reuters)

Report: 40 Percent of Afghan Media Outlets Have Closed Since August

  • Since the Taliban took over Afghanistan, more than two hundred media outlets have closed and over 80 percent of women journalists have lost their jobs, according to a new report (Reporters Without Borders)

Afghan Protesters, U.S. Lawmakers Call for Washington to Unfreeze Afghan Assets

  • Protesters in Kabul and forty-six U.S. Congress members, mostly Democrats, called on Washington to unfreeze more than $9 billion in Afghanistan’s foreign reserves as a humanitarian measure (Al Jazeera)
  • The White House said its hands are tied on the issue (Voice of America)

Coalition of Muslim-Majority Nations Plans New Fund for Afghanistan

  • The Organization of Islamic Cooperation announced plans to open the fund through the Islamic Development Bank by the first quarter of 2022 (TOLOnews)

Iran Increases Deportations of Afghan Migrants

  • From January to November 28 of this year, Iran sent back more than one million Afghans, a nearly 50 percent increase from the same period in 2020, according to the International Organization for Migration (Los Angeles Times)

Former Afghan President Reportedly ‘Invited’ Taliban to Take Over Kabul

  • Former President Hamid Karzai, who left office in 2014, said that he and Abdullah Abdullah, the government’s former chief negotiator, brokered a deal with the Taliban so that the group would seize Kabul without violence during their takeover of the country in August (Associated Press)

UN Warns of Extrajudicial Killings in Afghanistan

  • The United Nations has received credible allegations of over one hundred extrajudicial killings in Afghanistan since the Taliban took over in August, with most carried out by Taliban militants, deputy human rights chief Nada Al-Nashif said (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)

Afghanistan Donors Agree to Release Some Aid Funding

  • Donors to the World Bank–administered Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund, which was frozen after the Taliban’s takeover in August, agreed to transfer a combined $280 million to the World Food Program and UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to support food security and health care in Afghanistan (Reuters)

Several European Countries Considering Foreign Mission in Afghanistan

  • French President Emmanuel Macron said several European countries are considering opening a joint mission in Afghanistan that would not amount to political recognition of the Taliban (BBC)

Taliban Issue Decree on Women’s Rights With No Mention of Work, Secondary Education

  • The decree says that women cannot be forced to marry by coercion or pressure but does not mention underage marriage (Radio Azadi)

Taliban, Iranian Border Guards Clash

  • A “misunderstanding” over the demarcation of the countries’ shared border prompted brief clashes, the Taliban said (Voice of America)

Watchdog: Taliban Killed or Disappeared Over One Hundred Former Afghan Security Officers

  • The summary executions and forced disappearances occurred after the Taliban took over Afghanistan in August, according to a new report (Human Rights Watch)

Report: Taliban Infiltration of Government, Other Organizations Contributed to Rapid Fall of Afghanistan

  • Undercover Taliban agents who had infiltrated government ministries, businesses, and aid organizations helped the group rapidly take over the country in August, according to a report (Wall Street Journal)

Tens of Thousands of Afghans Apply for Entry to United States

  • More than twenty-eight thousand Afghans have applied for humanitarian entry to the United States since shortly before the Taliban’s takeover, but only around one hundred applicants have been approved, according to U.S. officials (Associated Press)

Taliban Calls on United States to Release Frozen Funds

  • The group said the U.S. freeze on Afghanistan’s central bank assets violates the 2020 U.S.-Taliban agreement and contributes to the country’s humanitarian and economic crisis (TOLOnews)

Opium Production in Afghanistan Continues to Rise

  • Opium production in the country exceeded six thousand tons, for the fifth straight year, according to the United Nations (Bloomberg)