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AWCC launches 3G services in a remote area of Kunar province

Afghan Wireless Communication Company (AWCC) has rolled out 3G services to the remote Chaghan district in the northeastern province of Kunar.
Being so remote, Chaghan residents have struggled with limited telecommunications in the past but this week they welcomed AWCC’s initiative.
Officials in the area also welcomed the move and said the new infrastructure installed in Chaghan also helps cover surrounding areas.
“An AWCC site was opened in a dominant location. This is a very good place. It is connected to the [provincial] center and covers some areas of Marawar district and Watepur district. We are grateful to AWCC,” said Sajjad, provincial director of communications.
Ejazul Haq Yousufzai, head of Afghanistan Telecom Regulatory Authority (ATRA) in Kunar, said efforts are ongoing for the development of telecommunication services so as to reach all districts in the province.
Local authorities in Kunar expressed their appreciation for the provision of telecommunication and internet services by AWCC and acknowledged that the services provided by the company are of a good quality.
“First of all, we are very grateful to the employees of AWCC for providing these services to the people of Kunar. We ask all companies and institutions to provide such services to the mountainous province of Kunar,” provincial governor, Ahmad Taha, said.
Abdullah Haqqani, deputy governor of Kunar, said: “Kunar is a mountainous province. The number of [cellphone] towers is not enough. We demand that problems faced by the people get solved.”
Local residents also expressed their satisfaction with the recent move of AWCC.
“The opening of this site is a great achievement for these two valleys. With this, these two valleys were connected to the center. The problems that people were facing before have now been solved,” Hayatullah, a resident of Kunar province, said.
Meanwhile, AWCC officials in the eastern zone assured the people of Kunar that the company will provide telecommunication services to all remote areas of the province.
“This site plays a key role for these two valleys, Dangam, Ghazi Abad, Nari, Watepur and up to Nuristan. Without the site, other sites cannot provide these services,” said Attaullah Sahil, head of AWCC in the eastern zone.
With the improvement of the security situation, AWCC has not only expanded its telecommunication services in the eastern zone, but it has covered many remote areas of the zone with 3G and 4G internet services.
Kunar province lies in the northeastern section of the country and borders northern Pakistan. The vast majority of the province is mountainous and extremely rugged.
The province is dominated by the lower Hindu Kush mountains which are cut by the Kunar River to form the forested Kunar Valley. The mountains, narrow valleys with steep walls, and rivers present formidable natural obstacles and have historically constrained all movement through the province.
Even in the early 21st century, movement on foot, with pack animals, or with motorized vehicles is extremely limited and channeled due to the significant geographic restrictions.
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UN, aid agencies cut Afghanistan aid plan budget to $3.2 billion

The United Nations and humanitarian agencies have revised the budget for Afghanistan’s aid plan for 2023 to $3.2 billion, down from $4.6 billion earlier in the year, the UN humanitarian office said on Monday.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a statement that a “changing operating context” in the wake of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’s (IEA) restrictions on female aid workers had contributed to the revised plan, Reuters reported.
IEA authorities have issued several orders barring many Afghan female NGO and United Nations employees from being able to work, which aid agencies have warned would severely hamper delivery in the religiously conservative nation.
“The recent bans on Afghan women working for… NGOs and the U.N. have added yet another layer of complexity to what is already an incredibly challenging protection environment, and further constrained the operational capacity of partners,” the UN statement said.
Afghanistan remains one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, the statement added, with more than two-thirds of the population in need of humanitarian assistance.
Some humanitarian officials and diplomats have warned of a potential decline in funding to Afghanistan due to the IEA restrictions on female workers and donor governments assessing competing global crises and economic priorities.
It was not clear how much of the revised budget would be funded by foreign donors.
Global humanitarian appeals often fall short of the total amount requested. In 2022, the humanitarian response plan was budgeted at $4.4 billion and received around $3.2 billion. The UN says the number of people in need has grown since last year.
The United Nations’ development agency in April predicted Afghanistan’s economy would contract and inflation would rise if there were a 30% drop in aid.
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Badakhshan’s deputy governor killed in car bomb

A car bomb in Afghanistan’s northern Badakhshan province on Tuesday morning, killed two people including the provincial deputy governor.
Six others were injured in the blast which happened around 8:15 am near the court building in the provincial capital, Faizabad, said Muezuddin Ahmadi, the provincial director of information and culture.
He said that the official was traveling in his car when the explosion happened.
The injured were taken to hospital for treatment.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.
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NRC resumes operations in parts of Afghanistan with male and female staff

Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) announced on Sunday that the council has resumed humanitarian operations with “equal participation” of male and female staff in different regions of Afghanistan.
“I am glad to confirm that we have been able to resume most of our humanitarian operations in Kandahar as well as a number of other regions in Afghanistan,” Jan Egeland, Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council, tweeted.
Egeland further stated that: “All our work is for women & men, girls & boys alike, & with equal participation of our female & male humanitarian colleagues.”
The IEA has not yet commented on the NRC’s announcement.
This comes after Egeland said last month that key Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) officials told him in meetings that they are close to finalizing guidelines that will allow Afghan women to resume work at nongovernmental organizations (NGOs).
But they were unable to give a timeline or details when pressed, he said.
The IEA last December barred Afghan women from working at NGOs, allegedly because they were not wearing the hijab correctly and were not observing gender segregation rules.
In April, they extended the ban to UN offices and agencies in Afghanistan. There are exemptions in some sectors like health care and education.
In January, the IEA said they were working on guidelines for women to return to work at NGOs. They previously said they were working on guidelines so that girls and young women could return to education but these have yet to materialize.
During his visit to the country in May, Egeland hoped to persuade the IEA to reverse the ban on the organization’s female staff.
Egeland met the Kandahar deputy governor, Mawlawi Hayatullah Mubarak, who he described as having “direct contact with and links” to the IEA’s supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, who ordered the education and NGO bans. He also met the head of Kandahar’s Economy Directorate, Mawlawi Abdul Salam Baryali.
“The authorities in Kandahar have a special position since the emir (Akhundzada) sits in Kandahar,” he said at the time.
“Whatever agreement we can get in Kandahar can have a national impact. These guidelines are close to being finalized and should soon be put into effect that is what was conveyed.”
Egeland said he pressed the officials for a timeline and clarity on the word “soon” but they didn’t elaborate.
He was told the IEA couldn’t guarantee anything as everything needed to be put to the supreme leadership. They also told him they had been working on the NGO matter for months and that most issues have been resolved.
The guidelines are likely to cover dress codes, gender segregation in the workplace, and a chaperone for travel.
The Norwegian Refugee Council stood to lose 40% of its funding for Afghanistan because of the bans on female employment and education, he said.
He said the potential loss meant a 40% drop in the number of people reached.
The agency has also laid off 220 of its 1,500 workforce and closed five offices. But it retains male and female Afghan staff who have been unable to work because of the bans. The agency is not deploying male-only teams.
“I believe their promises,” he said last month of the IEA. “But I can only accept the facts.”
The IEA has repeatedly told senior humanitarian officials visiting Afghanistan since December that the NGO restrictions are temporary suspensions, not a ban.
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