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U.N. aid chief to visit Afghanistan over female aid worker ban

U.N. aid chief Martin Griffiths will visit Afghanistan in the coming weeks and seek to meet the highest possible officials within Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA), after it banned female aid workers, Reuters quoting a senior U.N. official said on Thursday.
“We regret to see that there is already an impact of this decision on our programs,” Ramiz Alakbarov, U.N. aid coordinator in Afghanistan, told reporters in New York after the United Nations said that some “time-critical” programs had temporarily stopped and other activities will also likely be paused.
He said women made up roughly 30% of aid workers and that they would not be replaced with men. Alakbarov also said the “humanitarian needs of the people are absolutely enormous and it’s important that we continue to stay and deliver.”
The United Nations has said that 97% of Afghans live in poverty, two-thirds of the population need aid to survive and 20 million people face acute hunger, read the report.
Alakbarov said U.N. officials were meeting with ministries to discuss the impact on aid programs and that a meeting with the health minister about the delivery of services for women and girls by female aid workers had been “rather constructive.”
“We already had an agreement with the minister that in that sector there should not be a barrier and the service providers may return to work. Now let’s see how this is going to play out,” Alakbarov said. “The discussions with other line ministers have not yielded the same results yet, but they are ongoing.”
He said he would be focused on talking with the IEA officials to try and get the ban reversed because they responded better to dialogue instead of pressure, adding: “This movement have not responded well to the pressure in the past.”
Alakbarov said that 70% of U.N. programs were implemented in partnership with other aid organizations.
Four major global groups said on Sunday that they were suspending operations because they were unable to run their programs without female staff. Others have since followed suit, Reuters reported.
The ban on female aid workers was announced by IEA on Saturday. It follows a ban imposed last week on women attending universities. Girls were stopped from attending high school in March.
Alakbarov said most of the decrees came from the Shura, or leadership council, in the southern city of Kandahar – the birthplace of the Taliban (IEA) – and if a decree was signed by a minister in the capital Kabul it referenced the Kandahar Shura.
He said there were divisions within the IEA over the bans on women, adding: “It’s also generational. The older generation of IEA is more conservative.
The IEA seized power in August last year. They largely banned education of girls when last in power two decades ago but had said their policies had changed. The IEA has not been recognized internationally.
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Special meeting will be held to launch Afghanistan–Russia joint commission, says Kabulov

Zamir Kabulov, Russia’s special envoy for Afghanistan, on Wednesday met with Afghanistan’s Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs Amir Khan Muttaqi in Kabul and said a special meeting will be held on the sidelines of the Kazan Forum to officially launch the permanent joint commission between Russia and Afghanistan.
According to a statement issued by the Afghan foreign ministry, Kabulov said that expanding relations with Afghanistan is important to Russia, and for that purpose, Moscow has taken steps to remove obstacles in the path of developing bilateral ties.
This comes after Moscow last week removed the Islamic Emirate from their list of militant organizations.
During the meeting, Muttaqi expressed appreciation for Russia’s recent move to remove the IEA from its list of banned organizations and stated that the Islamic Emirate will soon appoint a diplomat at the ambassadorial level to serve in Moscow.
The two sides also discussed enhancing bilateral relations between Afghanistan and Russia, expanding economic and trade cooperation, and addressing certain regional issues.
The 16th International Economic Forum “Russia – Islamic World: Kazan Forum” will be held from May 13 to 18 in the city of Kazan, Russia. Afghan products and goods will be showcased at the event.
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Balochistan business chamber asks Islamabad to issue work permits to Afghan refugees
This comes amid Pakistan’s ongoing campaign to expel hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees living in the country.

The Balochistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Quetta, Pakistan, has appealed to the federal government to issue work permits to skilled Afghan refugees who work in various sectors including mining and agriculture.
Haji Akhtar Kakar, the vice president of the chamber of commerce and industry, made the request while pointing out that the existing shortage of skilled labour could worsen further if the issue was not addressed promptly, Dawn news reported.
This comes amid Pakistan’s ongoing campaign to expel hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees living in the country.
Akhtar said however that due to Balochistan’s deteriorating security situation, mine owners, farmers and industrialists have had to rely on Afghans for skilled labor as Pakistani workers from other provinces were reluctant to move to Balochistan.
According to him, the decision to expel Afghan refugees had severely impacted the agriculture, mining, and industrial sectors in Balochistan, as a significant portion of the workforce came from Afghanistan.
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China keen to invest in Afghanistan’s agriculture sector: Ministry

Acting Minister of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock, Attaullah Omari, on Tuesday met with a delegation and representatives from the Chinese private sector in Kabul and they discussed expanding cooperation, investment in agriculture, livestock, and irrigation, as well as sharing China’s experiences with Afghanistan.
In a statement, the agriculture ministry said that the Chinese delegation emphasized the Beijing private sector’s interest in investing in Afghanistan’s agriculture and livestock sectors.
The Chinese delegation also expressed readiness to begin practical projects once certain facilities such as land leasing are arranged, the statement read.
The Chinese delegation also met with Nooruddin Azizi, the acting Minister of Industry and Commerce.
During this meeting, Azizi stated that they would provide all necessary facilities for foreign investors.
Over the past three years, most Chinese companies have shown interest in investing in Afghanistan’s mining sector. However, this marks the first time that Chinese investors are seeking to invest in the country’s agriculture sector.
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