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Thousands of Afghans flee their homes as fighting erupts
Thousands of Afghans have fled their homes in Helmand province as fierce fighting between government forces and the Taliban erupted after the US military began withdrawing its remaining troops.
AFP reports Afghan forces pushed back a string of insurgent attacks on checkpoints across the southern province, where the US military on Sunday handed over a base to government forces as part of its formal pullout that began on 1 May.
About 1,000 families have fled their homes to escape the fighting that erupted on the outskirts of Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand, and some other parts of the province, Sayed Mohammad Ramin, the region’s director for refugees told AFP.
He said the families had taken refuge in Lashkar Gah and had come from areas where fighting was intense in the past two days.
“We will survey their needs tomorrow, but many who still have not found shelter in the city need urgent assistance,” Ramin told AFP.
The defence ministry said government forces had killed more than 100 Taliban fighters in Helmand in the past 24 hours when the insurgents attacked some checkpoints on the outskirts of Lashkar Gah.
Another 22 al-Qaida fighters from Pakistan were also killed in the fighting, the ministry said.
Officials said the Taliban fighters initially captured some checkpoints but they were retaken by government forces who pushed back the insurgents, AFP reported.
“The enemy has now lost all the areas it had captured and suffered heavy casualties,” Attaullah Afghan, head of the Helmand provincial council, told AFP.
The Taliban said dozens of Afghan troops were killed in the fighting. Both sides are known to exaggerate casualties inflicted on the other.
UK-based medical care provider Emergency said it is receiving large numbers of “war wounded patients” at its surgical centre in Lashkar Gah due to widespread fighting in the area since 1 May.
It said the hospital received 106 patients, of which 65 had to be admitted.
“These are very difficult days in Lashkar Gah … We have also put beds in the physiotherapy room to accommodate all the injured patients,” Viktor Urosevic, medical coordinator at the hospital, said in a statement issued by Emergency.
Emergency’s Afghanistan coordinator, Marco Puntin, said fighting in Helmand was not an isolated event.
“We have witnessed an escalation of conflict across Afghanistan,” he said.
Fighting was also reported in several other provinces since the US military formally began pulling out its remaining 2,500 troops, AFP reported.
The Pentagon has downplayed the fighting.
“We’ve seen nothing thus far that has affected the drawdown, or had any significant impact on the mission at hand in Afghanistan,” US Department of Defence spokesperson John Kirby said on Monday.
Nearly 20 years after US and allied Natotroops invaded Afghanistan and ousted the Taliban government as they pursued al-Qaida after the September 11, 2001 attacks, President Joe Biden ordered in April the final withdrawal.
On Tuesday, US officials said the military has completed two to six percent of the withdrawal.
Mohammad Yaqub Mujahid, Acting Minister of Defense, met with the Ambassador of Azerbaijan in Kabul on Wednesday and said that the reopening of the Embassy of Azerbaijan in Kabul is a positive step to strengthening relations between the two countries.
The Ministry of National Defense quoted Mujahid as saying, in a statement, that the friendship and commonality between the people of the two countries is as a Muslim friend.
Mujahid called the reopening of the Azerbaijani embassy in Kabul a positive step and said that to consolidate these long-standing relations, “we want to start economic, commercial, and [ties in] other sectors as soon as possible.”
The ambassador of Azerbaijan also said that “we are ready to expand cooperation with the Islamic Emirate and the people of this country while strengthening relations.”
The Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs says on the occasion of International Labor Day, the Islamic Emirate is trying to increase the number of job opportunities in the country.
The ministry said that it has distributed work permits to more than 2,000 people, including women, during the past month.
“Work permits were given to 2,115 of our compatriots over the past month, including to 205 women,” said Samiullah Ebrahimi, a spokesman for the Ministry of Public Works.
“Of course, women have been permitted to work in sectors where women are necessary and their services are for women,” he added.
Meanwhile, workers in the country complain about the lack of jobs and say that the level of unemployment has increased and workers’ wages have decreased.
Afghanistan is one of the countries that has countless child laborers, and according to reports, governments have not been able to end this practice.
“I work for 200 to 300 afghanis a day, and there are eight members in our family,” said one child laborer.
“I am 12 years old and in sixth grade. I earn 150 afghanis per day, there are seven of us and I have been working here for one and a half years,” said another child laborer.
According to UN statistics, in 2024, more than 23 million people in Afghanistan need humanitarian aid, and that most of them are unemployed.
However, the demands are that international institutions should provide work for the people of Afghanistan by implementing development projects.
The Islamic Emirate’s Miynister of Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, Mohammad Khalid Hanafi, says there is no gap between the current system and the people and that cooperation with the Islamic system is the people’s Sharia duty, the ministry said in a statement.
At a gathering in Kabul, Hanafi said: “This Islamic system is the people’s system, the people are considered part of this system, there is no gap between the system and the people. Therefore, cooperation with the Islamic system is the people’s Sharia duty.”
“It’s a very positive thing that we Afghan people do not have differences among ourselves as before, we live under the command of one leader and the flag of the Islamic system,” Hanafi stressed.
“The goal of Jihad was to end the occupation, gain independence and strengthen the Islamic system in the country,” he stated, adding that “all these goals have been achieved with the help of God and the cooperation of Afghans.”
“Now the time has come to serve and cooperate with the people to solve the problems and implement the Sharia rules of the Islamic system,” he added.
The ministry stated that in addition to providing and protecting women’s Sharia rights, thousands of complaints have been resolved so far.
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