Badakhshan Governor Mohammad Ayub Khalid has said that hundreds of kilometers of roads have been repaired and paved in the province in the past year, and that work on the road connecting Badakhshan with Panjshir and the construction of the Badakhshan ring road is ongoing.

Badakhshan is in the north-eastern part of Afghanistan and sits mostly in the Hindu Kush and Pamir mountains. Poor roads have plagued this province for decades.

"The road between Darayem and Argo districts has been repaired, paved and gravelled. Likewise, with the cooperation of the Ministry of Public Works, we paved the road between Argo and Faiz Abad."

Khalid added that they have started construction of the Badakhshan ring road in the border districts, the asphalting of the Pamir road up to the Chinese border and will open Khwahan district road to Darwazaha region.

"It's been more than two and a half months since the explosions started in the mountains. The road has been widened to a great extent. The ring road in Badakhshan is very important and its work has started. Meanwhile, we proposed about Kuran wa Munjan, which connects Badakhshan and Panjshir, and it has been approved.”

Residents of Darwazha region say that the road to their districts has been closed for several months, which has caused serious problems for them. They want the government to address the problem of poor road conditions before the arrival of winter.

"Before the cold season arrives, the roads that connect the districts and villages must be reconstructed,” said Ahmad Nabil Qazizada, a resident of Badakhshan.

According to the governor of Badakhshan, construction and repair of hundreds of kilometers of roads has been completed in the last year in coordination with the ministries of rural development, public works and the ministry of national defense.

The Global Hunger Index has ranked Afghanistan 116th among 127 countries, which places it under the “serious” category of the analysis.

According to the latest report published on Friday, Afghanistan scored 30.8.

In 2023, Afghanistan scored 30.6 and ranked 114th in the index.

GHI scores are based on the values of four indicators such as the level of people's malnutrition, child stunting, wasting and mortality. The less a country scores in the GHI, the lower the rate of hunger in that country.

According to the GHI report, 30.4 percent of the population in Afghanistan are undernourished, 44.6 percent of children under five are stunted, 3.6 percent of children under five are wasted and 5.8 percent of children die before their fifth birthday.

Afghanistan will not participate in the upcoming Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit, which will take place in Islamabad on October 15 and 16, as it has not received an invitation from the bloc's secretariat.

Express News reported that the secretariat’s decision underscores Afghanistan's current status within the organization, as it is classified as an observer state rather than a full member.

Diplomatic sources indicate that Afghanistan's membership in the SCO has been inactive since September 2021. The country became an SCO observer on June 7, 2012, but has not engaged actively since its membership was rendered, Express News reported.

Pakistan, the host country for the summit, is expected to welcome leaders from various nations and around 200 delegations.

The SCO remains focused on fostering regional cooperation and security, with significant participation anticipated at the upcoming meeting.