At least 24 people died in a traffic accident on Wednesday in Sar-e-Pul province of Afghanistan, local officials said.

Din Mohammad Nazari, the spokesman of the Sar-e-Pul Province Police Command, said eight children, 12 women and four men died in the accident.

According to Nazari the accident happened in Sayad Sarpul district on Wednesday afternoon when a passenger vehicle left the round.

Nazari said the accident was the result of careless driving.

US Special Representative for Afghanistan Thomas West said on Wednesday that reports about the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) cracking down on poppy cultivation are “credible and important”.

West said in a tweet that “reports that the Taliban (IEA) have implemented policies to significantly decrease opium poppy production this year are credible and important.

“Every country in the region and beyond has a shared interest in an Afghanistan free of drugs,” he said.

His comments come after the BBC reported on Tuesday that an investigation by the media outlet found a marked decrease in poppy cultivation across Afghanistan this year.

The BBC reported that it traveled in Afghanistan – and used satellite analysis – to examine the effects of a decree issued in April 2022 by the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’s (IEA) supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada that the cultivation of poppies, from which opium, the key ingredient for the drug heroin can be extracted, was strictly prohibited.

The news outlet stated that IEA leaders appear to have been more successful cracking down on cultivation than anyone ever has.

“We found a huge fall in poppy growth in major opium-growing provinces, with one expert saying annual cultivation could be 80% down on last year. Less-profitable wheat crops have supplanted poppies in fields – and many farmers say they are suffering financially,” the report stated.

Provinces visited by the BBC included Nangarhar, Kandahar and Helmand. Studies of satellite images were also done.

“It is likely that cultivation will be less than 20% of what it was in 2022. The scale of the reduction will be unprecedented,” said David Mansfield, a leading expert on Afghanistan’s drugs trade, who is working with Alcis – a UK firm which specializes in satellite analysis.

Alcis’s analysis shows that poppy cultivation in Helmand has reduced by more than 99%. “The high resolution imagery of Helmand province shows that poppy cultivation is down to less than 1,000 hectares when it was 129,000 hectares the previous year,” said David Mansfield.

A memorandum of understanding (MoU) on simplifying administrative processes was on Wednesday signed between the Department of Administrative Reform and Civil Services of the General Directorate of Administrative Affairs and the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock.

Officials from the Department of Administrative Reforms and Civil Services said at the signing ceremony that the MoU aims to simplify complicated processes and eliminate corruption.

According to the officials, they managed to simplify more than 360 processes last year.

Abdulhanan Arifullah, head of the Administrative Reforms and Civil Services Department, said: “From 1401 to 1402 solar years, 304 processes have been simplified… I assure the esteemed elders that these employees are honest.”

The Minister of Agriculture and Livestock said that by signing the MoU, they seek to avoid wasting time in the offices and address people’s problems quickly.

“It is the responsibility of the relevant institutions and authorities to solve problems between the institutions and the people, and bring administrative reforms. If there are no administrative reforms, there will surely be administrative corruption,” Ataullah Omari, Minister of Agriculture and Livestock, said.

“Certainly, this has a good message for the institutions, the government and the people, and it makes the people more hopeful,” Noorulhaq Anwar, General Director of Administrative Affairs, said.

Officials in the General Directorate of Administrative Affairs say that it cooperates with all institutions in the areas of capacity building, counseling, handling complaints and taking electronic exams.

Previously, for the purpose of simplifying administrative processes and ensuring transparency in the offices, MoUs were signed between the Department of Administrative Reform and Civil Services of the General Directorate of Administrative Affairs, the Ministry of Martyrs and the Disabled and Kabul Municipality.