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Austin pays surprise visit to Kabul ‘to listen and learn’
President Ashraf Ghani met with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Sunday afternoon in Kabul to discuss the Afghanistan situation ahead of a May 1 troop withdrawal deadline.
Austin made an unannounced stop in Kabul after meeting with high-ranking Indian officials including Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the weekend.
In a tweet after meeting Ghani, Austin said he was “very grateful for my time with President Ashraf Ghani today. I came to Afghanistan to listen and learn. This visit has been very helpful for me, and it will inform my participation in the review we are undergoing here” with President Joe Biden on the troop withdrawal review.
According to the Presidential Palace (ARG), both Ghani and Austin expressed their concerns over the increase of violence in the country.
ARG stated that their discussions focused on the need for an enduring and just peace as the main solution for the current situation in Afghanistan, and that Austin said the US is supporting Afghanistan in this respect.
Austin’s visit comes after Biden revealed recently that he’s “in the process” of reaching a verdict on whether to withdraw all U.S. troops on the ground, keep them in the country indefinitely or extend their presence for another six months.
“I’m in the process of making that decision now as to when they’ll leave,” Biden told ABC news in an interview last week.
“The fact is that that was not a very solidly negotiated deal that the president, the former president, worked out. And so we’re in consultation with our allies as well as the government, and that decision’s going to be — it’s in process now.”
Biden added that a full-scale military pullout “could happen, but it is tough.”
However, the high levels of violence is of major concern to all parties.
In February, Austin said: “Clearly, the violence is too high right now and more progress needs to be made in the Afghan-led negotiations.”
“So I urge all parties to choose the path towards peace. And the violence must decrease now.”
Approximately 3,500 troops are in Afghanistan, which is around 1,000 more than what was disclosed by Pentagon officials, according to the New York Times.
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UNESCO: 2.4 million Afghan girls denied education since 2021
UNESCO estimates that the ban could force around 600,000 Afghan women out of the workforce by 2066 and cause $9.6 billion in lost income. It could also increase the risk of early marriage.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) said on Tuesday around 2.4 million Afghan girls have been denied secondary education since the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) returned to power in 2021.
In a statement on Tuesday, UNESCO said Afghanistan is the only country in the world where girls and women are officially barred from secondary and higher education.
The organization warned that the restrictions could increase poverty, reduce employment opportunities and cause long-term damage to Afghanistan’s future.
UNESCO estimates that the ban could force around 600,000 Afghan women out of the workforce by 2066 and cause $9.6 billion in lost income. It could also increase the risk of early marriage.
Girls’ secondary schools were closed in March 2022, followed by a ban on women attending universities in December of the same year. The IEA initially described the restrictions as temporary, but they remain in place.
UNESCO also warned that the restrictions could worsen Afghanistan’s shortage of female teachers. It estimates the country could face a shortage of more than 11,000 qualified female teachers by 2030.
The organization said more than 90% of 10-year-old children in Afghanistan cannot read a simple text, while the national literacy rate is around 37%.
Nearly half of the country’s schools also lack adequate access to water, sanitation or heating, UNESCO said.
According to the report, around three million people returned to Afghanistan in 2025, putting further pressure on the education system. Since 2021, earthquakes, floods and other natural disasters have also forced around 1,000 schools to close.
Russia’s Power Machines Company is interested in investing in the rehabilitation and modernization of Afghanistan’s power plants, Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat (DABS) said on Tuesday.
DABS Chief Executive Officer Abdul Haq Hamkar discussed the potential investment with technical officials from Power Machines, with talks focusing on rehabilitating existing power plants, modernizing equipment and expanding power-generation capacity.
According to DABS, Hamkar said the company would cooperate in facilitating preliminary technical assessments of Afghanistan’s power plants and in exploring investment opportunities in the sector.
Denis Rudakov, head of Power Machines’ commercial department, said the Russian company plans to conduct preliminary technical assessments of existing power plants in Afghanistan.
Based on the findings, Power Machines will prepare proposals for rehabilitating facilities, modernizing equipment and increasing electricity-generation capacity, DABS said.
Afghanistan currently has several operational power plants, while efforts are underway to increase their generation capacity and upgrade their equipment, according to DABS.
Zabihullah Mujahid, spokesman for the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA), on Tuesday denied that IEA authorities detained Mahmood Shah Habibi, an Afghan-American businessman the US claims disappeared in Kabul four years ago.
“We have no information about Mahmood Shah Habibi. He is not with the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. If he were, this issue would have been resolved long ago,” Mujahid said.
His remarks came a day after the FBI marked the fourth anniversary of Habibi’s disappearance and renewed its appeal for information about his whereabouts.
According to the FBI, Habibi disappeared near his home in Kabul on August 10, 2022. At the time, he was working as a consultant for Asia Consultancy Group, a Kabul-based telecommunications company. He had previously served as Afghanistan’s director of civil aviation.
The FBI has alleged that Habibi was detained by the IEA’s General Directorate of Intelligence.
The FBI has continued its investigation and in 2025 released a missing-persons poster for Habibi. The U.S. State Department has also offered a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to his location, recovery and return.
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