Connect with us

Latest News

Drug users in Afghanistan tops to 3 million

Published

on

(Last Updated On: October 25, 2022)

DRAG - 12-05-2015-PASHTO-SOT.avi_snapshot_00.33_[2015.05.12_18.33.36]

The recent research by US foreign ministry indicates that the number of drug users in Afghanistan reach to 3 million.

Not only is Afghanistan the global leader in opium production, but Afghans are now the leading consumers of their own drugs. The number of Afghan drug addicts now stands at nearly three million, up from less than 500,000 just two years ago. One Afghan health official describes the drug scourge as a “tsunami for our country”.

The survey was conducted in rural areas of 24 provinces of the country and shows that about 1.4 million people use drugs daily and in additional 1.6 million sporadically use drugs in Afghanistan.

With NATO troops pulling out and local law enforcement agencies ill-equipped and underfunded, production looks set to increase even further. And with the Taliban andal-Qaeda funded by the drug trade, fears are rising that further instability could wreak more havoc on this war-torn nation.

Drug use inside Afghanistan has spiked, according to the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction. About 1.3 million Afghan adults were regular drug users in 2012, up from 1 million in 2009; regular opium users grew to 230,000 in 2009 from 130,000 in 2005. The population of Afghanistan is just under 32 million.

Beyond Afghanistan’s borders, about three-quarters of the world’s illicit opium products originates from the country, which sees its poppy cultivation concentrated almost entirely in the country’s southern and western provinces.

Afghan authorities are struggling to control the resurgence in poppy farming that feeds the habits of addicts worldwide.

In 2013, coalition and Afghan forces seized 41,000kg of opium, while Afghans produced 5.5m kilograms of it. Overall operations are down 17% since 2011, with opium seizures down 57% and heroin seizures down 77%. As well, much of the country’s drug trafficking is invisible or inaccessible to the Afghan forces the US mentors and funds.

In another report by Special Inspector General for Afghan Reconstruction (SIGAR) Afghanistan is housing the equivalent of 400,000 football fields worth of opium fields, despite the United States having spent billions in taxpayer funds to combat the growth of illicit narcotics.

Security in Afghanistan also continues to deteriorate, making it more difficult for inspectors to provide oversight on the projects receiving U.S. funding.

The explosion in opiate production, unaffected by the $7.5bn spent by the US since 2002 to combat it, puts “the entire US and donor investment in the reconstruction of Afghanistan at risk,” special inspector general John Sopko told a Senate panel in January.

Reported by Wahid Nawesa

Advertisement

Latest News

Pakistan’s army claims TTP is using Afghan soil

Published

on

(Last Updated On: May 7, 2024)

Pakistan’s military spokesperson Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry claimed on Tuesday that there is “irrefutable evidence” of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) using Afghanistan against the country.

“There is irrefutable evidence of Afghan soil being used by the TTP […] recent terrorist incidents can be traced back to Afghanistan,” Sharif said while addressing a press conference.

Reaffirming the commitment on counter-terrorism efforts, Chaudhry said that Pakistan will leave no stone unturned to eliminate the terrorist network.

He stressed that the security forces would go to any extent possible against terrorists. However, the spokesperson noted that the first priority of the Pakistan Army was to maintain law and order in the country.

“The army chief has said that there’s no place for terrorists in Pakistan,” the spokesperson said while reassuring that steps are being taken to bring the miscreants to justice.

On the issue of Afghan refugees living inside Pakistan, he said: “Millions of Afghans are still living in Pakistan, while the country is fighting against terrorism. Pakistan has helped Afghan refugees, which the world has recognised.”

Highlighting that millions of Afghan citizens continue to reside in Pakistan, he revealed that more than 563,000 Afghans have been repatriated.

He said the law and order situation was deteriorating because of the Afghan citizens.

“Militants are spoiling the law and order situation in Balochistan, but the army is [acting as] a wall against the miscreants,” he noted.

The Islamic Emirate has previously denied the presence of TTP in Afghanistan and said that Pakistan’s security problem has nothing to do with Afghanistan.

Continue Reading

Latest News

IEA’s supreme leader happy with ‘obedient’ ministers

Published

on

(Last Updated On: May 7, 2024)

The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’s Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada said on the last day of a three-day seminar on the coordination and regulation of specialist and religious universities in Kandahar that after the establishment of the Islamic Emirate, all the opponents were forgiven and they now live together like brothers.

Speaking at the seminar Monday, Akhundzada added that he is satisfied with the performance of his acting ministers as they always obey him.

“I am happy with my ministers and they are good people and always obey me. Obey, value and honor them because honor and obedience are not exclusive to the Amir [leader], but include all the commanders,” Akhundzada said.

He also said that the world wants to separate politics from religion, so that even in Islamic countries, scholars do not have a role in politics; but according to him in Afghanistan, scholars should have access to politics.

He asked scholars to follow the orders of the Islamic Emirate to encourage the nation to implement and obey the orders.

Ziaullah Hashimi, the spokesman of the Ministry of Higher Education, says that the three-day seminar brought together department heads, deputies and professors of the General Directorate of Specialist and Religious Universities of the Ministry of Higher Education.

The seminar started on Saturday and ended Monday.

Continue Reading

Latest News

Kazakhstan Trade House opens in Afghanistan’s Herat province

Published

on

(Last Updated On: May 7, 2024)

Kazakhstan Trade House in Afghanistan has officially opened in Herat province with the aim of increasing the volume of trade exchanges between the two countries.

Acting Minister of Industry and Commerce Noorudin Azizi called the opening of the Kazakhstan Trade House in Afghanistan a “positive and effective step” in strengthening and expanding trade relations between the two countries.

He stated that as a result of the trip of an Afghan delegation to Kazakhstan, Afghanistan’s exports to Kazakhstan have increased.

Meanwhile, Arman Yusintayev, head of the Kazakhstan Trade House in Afghanistan, highlighted that the aim of opening a trade house in Afghanistan is to increase the volume of trade exchanges between the two countries, adding Kazakhstan is interested in expanding trade relations with Afghanistan.

Continue Reading

Trending

Copyright © 2022 Ariana News. All rights reserved!