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Afghan dire humanitarian situation demands urgent support from int’l community: official

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(Last Updated On: April 2, 2022)

Afghanistan has faced a dire humanitarian situation over past few months, which urges the international community to take immediate actions to support the humanitarian response in the region, said an official of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on Thursday, Reuters reported.

Last August, the chaotic withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan added more woes to the country following two decades of war.

According to Reuters following the hasty pullout, the U.S. government quickly froze nearly 9.5 billion U.S. dollars in national foreign exchange assets from the Afghan central bank held in the United States, further aggravating the already dire humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan.

Last year, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warned that Afghanistan is facing “an avalanche of hunger and destitution”, with 98 percent of the population lacking adequate food.

The ICRC Director-General Robert Mardini elaborated on his experience in Afghanistan after visiting there in February of last year, read the report.

“It is very severe. It’s very difficult to have exact figures. But we see more and more people in the streets, selling their few belongings to be able to put food on the table. We see more and more people seeking daily jobs. The situation is very dire. The economic system is on the brink of collapse. The vast majority of banks are not working. It’s very hard for people to get funds. The vast majority of civil servants today in Afghanistan are simply not getting their salaries. So, you can imagine the ripple effect when a family relies on, eight members of a family rely on a salary, how hard daily life is for Afghans today,” he said.

He believes that the current extreme situation in Afghanistan should be attributed to a combination of factors including warfares and climate change.

“This is the consequence of four decades of armed conflict that really brought the country in a very dire state. And then the effects of climate change are also at the same time and concurrently hitting Afghanistan, with the cycles of drought and floods that are more intense, more frequent. And of course, this is putting huge pressure on the food production in the country and the ability of Afghans to sustain their own needs. And the fact today that the international community and the vast majority of development agencies unplugged their support to Afghanistan since August last year, a country that relies heavily on international aid, of course, is bringing many of the critical services that 40 million Afghans rely on, at the brink of collapse,” he said.

The ICRC director-general also called on the international community to scale up support to humanitarian efforts in Afghanistan to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe in the region, Reuters reported.

“Afghans have experienced four decades of armed conflict, repeated cycles of drought, putting their food security at risk. And I think it’s fair to say that no family has been spared by the effect of war. And while the day-to-day security has improved over the past months, Afghans face acute needs in humanitarian, but also in socio-economic terms. And this is not the time for the international community to forget Afghanistan. The well-being of the Afghan people should really lie above politics. And the ICRC is really committed and will consistently call for proper international attention and funding to ensure that public services that are critical to the survival of the civilian population be preserved in the country and the economic collapse is avoided,” said Mardini.

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Contract worth $53 million signed for construction of last section of Khaf–Herat railway

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(Last Updated On: March 29, 2024)

A contract worth $53 million was signed Thursday for the construction of the last section of Khaf-Herat railway that connects Afghanistan with Iran.

The contract was signed between Afghanistan Railway Authority and Gamma Group in the presence of Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, his office said in a statement.

The segment is 47-kilometer long, stretching from Rabat Parian to Herat International Airport and the Industrial Town, according to the statement.

It added that completion and standard operational readiness are expected within approximately two years.

“Upon its completion, this segment will integrate the Khaf-Herat regional connectivity project with Iran’s significant seaports and facilitate access to Europe via the Turkish railway network,” the statement said.

“Furthermore, traversing Afghan territory, it will bolster commercial exchanges between Central and South Asia. Notably, this project’s realization will enable the expansion of railway networks into Farah, Nimruz, Helmand, and Kandahar provinces,” it added.

Gamma operates across Europe and Asia in multiple sectors including construction, renewable energy, power transmission, mining, railways among others.

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US urges IEA to fulfill counter-terrorism commitments

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(Last Updated On: March 29, 2024)

The US State Department said on Thursday that Washington is committed to ensuring that Afghanistan can never again be a launching pad for terrorism.

“We remain committed to ensuring that Afghanistan can never again be a launching pad for terrorism, and we continue to push the Taliban (Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan) to fulfill all of their counterterrorism commitments to the international community,” the department’s spokesperson Matthew Miller said at a news briefing in Washington.

He reiterated that the United States had clearly communicated to the IEA that it’s their responsibility to ensure that “they give no safe haven to terrorists, whether it be Al Qaeda or ISIS-K or any other terrorist organization”.

Miller also reassured US allies that Washington was closely watching the developments in Afghanistan and was ready to deal with any threat emerging from the region.

“We remain vigilant against the evolving threat of these terrorist groups, and our global coalition to defeat ISIS and the C5+1 help intensify our efforts to monitor terrorist threats from the region and prevent their ability to raise funds, travel, and spread propaganda,” he said.

C5+1 refers to a diplomatic platform involving the five Central Asian states (Kazakhstan, Kyrgy­zstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan) and the United States. It serves as a forum for discussing and addressing regional issues such as security, economic development, and cooperation.

“The United States remains vigilant against the evolving threat posed by terrorist groups, including ISIS-K, and has maintained an unwavering focus on terrorism since President Joe Biden took office three years ago,” Miller said.

The US, he said, was “working both unilaterally and with its partners to successfully disrupt threats across the globe and degrade ISIS”.

“We will continue to work to hold ISIS accountable for its actions and to prevent terrorist attacks against the United States and other Western countries,” Miller said.

This comes as IEA has repeatedly said that it is committed to not allowing anyone to use Afghanistan soil against any other country.

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IEA condemns Israel for confiscating 800 hectares of land in West Bank’s Jordan Valley

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(Last Updated On: March 29, 2024)

The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) strongly condemned on Thursday Israel’s decision to seize 800 hectares of land in the occupied West Bank’s Jordan Valley region.

In a statement, the Foreign Ministry said that the recent actions by “the Zionist regime demonstrate that it does not to adhere to international laws, especially international humanitarian law.”

“Continuation of such unilateral actions and ignoring the rights of Palestinian people will further deteriorate the situation,” the statement said.

“The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan expects international actors, particularly influential regional Muslim countries to fulfill their legitimate, human and moral responsibilities in supporting the oppressed people of Palestine and prevent the expansion of illegal settlements in the occupied territories,” it added.

Israeli media have reported that Israel seized 800 hectares of land in the Jordan Valley region of the occupied West Bank, claiming it as “state land.”

It is reported the seized land could be used for the construction of illegal Jewish settlements.

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