More than 13,000 people fleeing Nagorno-Karabakh have arrived in Armenia, officials said, amid a massive exodus that followed an Azerbaijani offensive that gave Baku complete control of the mountainous region.

Nagorno-Karabakh authorities, meanwhile, said that at least 20 people were killed and nearly 300 others injured by an explosion at a gas station as people seeking to flee to Armenia lined up for fuel.

The unexplained blast outside the regional capital Stepanakert occurred on September 25 amid the increasingly chaotic exodus of people from the exclave, which was under the control of ethnic Armenians until last week.

Baku has pledged equal treatment for mainly ethnic Armenian residents, but the Yerevan has warned of possible “ethnic cleansing.”

Thousands of people clogged treacherous mountainous roads heading west from the region into Armenia itself, and Armenia’s government said on September 26 that more than 13,000 people had entered the country already.

Traffic was at a standstill again on September 26 as hundreds of cars and trucks jammed the main road through the so-called Lachin Corridor, and people overwhelmed the Armenian border town of Goris.

Prior to last week, Nagorno-Karabakh’s population was estimated to be about 120,000 people, who are overwhelmingly ethnic Armenians.

Adding to humanitarian concerns, Nagorno-Karabakh authorities said 13 more bodies were found at the scene of the fuel station blast that occurred as residents were lining up to fuel their cars in order to leave the region.

Seven more people had died of injuries, and 290 were hospitalized and “dozens of patients remain in critical condition,” officials said.

Protests are continuing in Yerevan over the government’s reaction to the crisis.

Demonstrators have been blocking the streets since the early hours of September 26, RFE/RL’s Armenian Service reported, and the Interior Ministry said that more than 50 protesters had been detained.

Meanwhile, the United States, which has played a diminished diplomatic role in the region in recent years, called on Azerbaijan to maintain the cease-fire and “take concrete steps to protect the rights of civilians in Nagorno-Karabakh.”

Speaking to reporters in Yerevan, Samantha Power, the top official at the U.S. Agency for International Development, said Baku's use of force was unacceptable, and she called on Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to protect ethnic Armenians’ rights.

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She said it was "absolutely critical" that independent monitors and aid organizations be given access to people in Karabakh, and she later announced a $11.5-million package of humanitarian aid for Armenia.

In Brussels, envoys from Baku and Yerevan met with European Council diplomats in the first such encounter since Azerbaijan's recapture of Nagorno-Karabakh following a nine-month blockade of the region that Armenian officials said had deprived the enclave's residents of food, medicine, and other essentials.

The EU stressed in a statement the need for transparency and access for international humanitarian and human rights groups and for more detail on Baku’s vision for Karabakh Armenians’ future in Azerbaijan.

During the meeting Hikmet Hajiyev, a foreign policy adviser to Aliyev, outlined Azerbaijan’s plans to provide humanitarian assistance and security to the local population. The EU is also providing assistance to Karabakh Armenians, the statement said.

The meeting also discussed a possible meeting of Nagorno-Karabakh stakeholders on October 5 in Granada.

SEE ALSO:

With Victory Assured, Azerbaijan Now Seeks 'Reintegration' Of Karabakh Armenians

"The participants took note of the shared interest of Armenia and Azerbaijan to make use of the possible meeting in Granada to continue their normalization efforts," the statement said.

Armenian representative Armen Grigorian and Hajiyev "engaged in talks on possible concrete steps to advance the Armenia-Azerbaijan peace process in the upcoming possible meeting, such as those with regard to border delimitation, security, connectivity, humanitarian issues, and the broader peace treaty," the statement said.

The statement added that the EU believes that the meeting should be used by both Yerevan and Baku to reiterate publicly their commitment to each other’s territorial integrity and sovereignty in line with previous agreements.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have fought two wars in the last three decades over the region, which had been a majority ethnic Armenian enclave within the internationally recognized border of Azerbaijan since the Soviet collapse.

The region initially came under the control of ethnic Armenian forces, backed by the Armenian military, in separatist fighting that ended in 1994. During a war in 2020, however, Azerbaijan took back parts of Nagorno-Karabakh along with surrounding territory that Armenian forces had claimed during the earlier conflict.

That fighting ended with a Russia-brokered cease-fire and the deployment of Russian peacekeepers. Those peacekeepers did little, however, to prevent the advances by Azerbaijani forces.

With reporting by RFE/RL’s Armenian and Azerbaijani services, AP, AFP and Reuters.

Peace has come to Afghanistan, but at a steep price: poverty, global isolation, and the virtual erasure of Afghan women from daily life are now the norm.

Sitting for a portrait in a war-scarred Afghan village, a Taliban fighter remarks, "Life is much more joyful now." For a young woman in the Afghan capital, forced out of education because of her gender, the opposite is true: "My life is like a prisoner, like a bird in a cage."

As a small crowd gathers around Abd's box camera, images of beauty and hardship ripple to life from its dark interior: a family enjoying an outing in a swan boat on a lake; child laborers toiling in brick factories; women erased by all-covering veils; armed young men with fire in their eyes.

The instrument used to record these moments is a "kamra-e faoree," or instant camera. They were a common sight on Afghan city streets in the last century -- a fast and easy way to make portraits, especially for identity documents. Simple, cheap, and portable, they endured a half-century of dramatic changes in this country -- from a monarchy to a communist takeover, from foreign invasions to insurgencies -- until 21st-century digital technology rendered them obsolete.

During their first stint in power from 1996 to 2001, the Taliban banned photography of humans and animals as contrary to the teachings of Islam. Many box cameras were smashed, though some were quietly tolerated, Afghan photographers say.

Using this nearly disappearing homegrown art form to document life in postwar Afghanistan, Abd produced hundreds of black-and-white prints that reveal a complex, sometimes contradictory narrative.

Captured over the course of a month, the images underscore how in the two years since U.S. troops pulled out and the Taliban returned to power, life has changed dramatically for many Afghans. For others, little has changed over the decades, regardless of who was in power.

A tool of a bygone era, the box camera imparts a vintage, timeless quality to the images, as if the country's past is superimposed over its present, which, in some respects, it is.

At first glance, the faded black-and-white, sometimes slightly out-of-focus images convey an Afghanistan frozen in time. But that aesthetic is deceiving. These are reflections of the country as it is now.

The Taliban has been celebrating since the Islamist group that rules Afghanistan signed seven mining contracts promising to attract more than $6.5 billion in investments late last month.

But experts are skeptical about whether the contracts -- signed on August 31 with Afghan-based companies aligned with foreign partners from China, Iran, Turkey, and Britain -- can be implemented.

They question whether large-scale mining investments are even possible as the Taliban's cash-strapped government remains unrecognized because of its extensive human rights abuses and its banning of women from schools, work and public life.

Illegitimacy

The Taliban's lack of legitimacy also hangs over whether its accelerated efforts to boost mining revenue can deliver as a dire humanitarian crisis deepens in Afghanistan. Experts say few Afghans can benefit from opaque deals that circumvent established international standards.

“Large-scale development of Afghanistan's mineral resources would take more capital than large firms are willing to commit in the absence of diplomatic recognition,” says Jeff Rigsby, a former U.S. military contractor and aid worker who lives in Kabul.

While looking for business opportunities in Afghanistan since 2022, Rigsby has closely followed the Taliban's effort to exploit the country’s mineral resources.

“The Taliban has not always done due diligence in the past when [it has] announced investment deals in other sectors,” he said. Rigsby added that little is known about the foreign firms signing the recent contracts to extract copper, gold, lead, zinc, and iron from several Afghan provinces.

“There is no transparency regarding these contracts,” noted Abdul Qadeer Mutfi, a former adviser to the Afghan Mining and Petroleum Ministry. “The Taliban wants to end the government’s financial problems by selling the minerals as raw materials to various countries.”

Mutfi said that Taliban mining contracts do not follow standard practices, which will deprive Kabul of international arbitration since the Taliban government is not recognized.

“Afghanistan might follow many African countries in experiencing a resource curse,” he said, alluding to the experience of several African nations in which large-scale exploitation of natural resources has not translated into growth and prosperity.

“After drugs, minerals are a significant source of funding conflict,” he said.

The Taliban, however, claims to be striving for self-sufficiency by developing the country’s natural resources. Its leaders have repeatedly projected mining, irrigation, and trade projects as a way out of the current economic and humanitarian crisis.

According to the UN, more than 30 million Afghans out of a total estimated population of 40 million need humanitarian assistance. With international funding declining, the world body has warned that millions of Afghans will not have enough food and that as many as 3 million face starvation.

Abundant Minerals

But Rigsby sees little Taliban success in developing new mines by pointing out that the extremist group has been exporting coal to Pakistan from existing mines and has revived an oil exploration deal with Chinese firms that the former pro-Western government in Kabul first concluded more than a decade ago.

SEE ALSO:

Cash-Strapped Taliban 'Exploiting' Afghanistan's Natural Resources To Boost Revenue

In January, the Taliban government signed a contract with the Xinjiang Central Asia Petroleum and Gas Company (CAPEIC) to invest $540 million until 2026 to explore oil and gas in Afghanistan’s northern Amu River basin. This revived a 2012 contract with the state-owned company China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC).

Surveys estimating Afghanistan’s potential mineral resources to be worth more than $1 trillion generated a lot of headlines in 2010. But the accuracy of this estimate has recently been questioned. The country’s poor infrastructure, absence of advanced technology, a trained workforce, and the high cost of extraction remain significant obstacles.

Nevertheless, the country has vast deposits of iron, copper, coal, lithium, marble, chromite, cobalt, and gold. And, in addition to gas and petroleum, the mountainous country has large reservoirs of lapis lazuli and other gemstones.

Since returning to power two years ago, the cash-strapped Taliban has attempted to turn Afghanistan’s natural resources into a cash cow.

“From these investments you can imagine how many minerals we have and how they can boost our revenues,” said Shahbuddin Delawar, the Taliban's mining and petroleum minister, after signing the deals on August 31.

He said in an interview that the Taliban government has so far concluded 116 small and 27 large mining contracts. He said during the last fiscal year, which ended in March, the government earned more than $220 million in mining revenue.

“The sale of minerals has increased because of transparency and an end to smuggling,” he told the BBC.

China

His upbeat assessment, however, is not backed by the evolving extractive industry on the ground. The Chinese state and private firms -- who are one of the major international investors in Afghan mining -- appear reluctant to begin working.

The China Metallurgical Group Corporation has yet to start a $2.83 billion contract for copper mining in the eastern Logar Province. The 30-year lease contract was signed in 2007. Taliban attempts to push the Chinese to begin underground mining to protect the vast Buddhist archaeological sites in the region have been unsuccessful.

“The Chinese presence here in the mining sector seems minimal, although some Chinese traders are exporting or smuggling minerals in small quantities,” noted Rigsby.

In a recent report, the research group Afghanistan Analyst Network concluded that the larger Chinese projects will take years to materialize.

“They will generate little immediate income for the ailing Afghan economy,” the report said.

Mutfi argues that in the absence of accountability, supervision, community engagement, and independent political and civil-society oversight, only Taliban leaders will benefit from exploiting Afghanistan’s natural resources.

“We are facing a significant loss,” he said.

Welcome to The Azadi Briefing, an RFE/RL newsletter that unpacks the key issues in Afghanistan. To subscribe, click here.

I'm Abubakar Siddique, a senior correspondent at RFE/RL's Radio Azadi. Here's what I've been tracking and what I'm keeping an eye on in the days ahead.

The Key Issue

International humanitarian operations in Afghanistan were boosted after the European Union and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) announced they would provide nearly $550 million in funding.

The ADB has approved $400 million “in grants to protect the welfare and livelihoods of vulnerable Afghan people, particularly women and girls, and ease the adverse impact of the ongoing humanitarian crisis.”

The EU has agreed to release more than $149 million of humanitarian assistance “in the fields of education, health, agriculture, and women's economic empowerment in Afghanistan.”

The announcement follows desperate calls for funding after the UN warned that millions among the nearly 30 million Afghans dependent on humanitarian aid will go hungry if they don’t receive urgent humanitarian funding.

“In Afghanistan, WFP has been forced to end life-saving aid for 10 million people,” Cindy McCain, the executive director of the UN World Food Program (WFP), warned on X, formerly known as Twitter, on September 19. “This is what a funding crisis means: no $$, no food.”

In August, the International Rescue Committee, a U.S. nongovernmental organization, said Afghanistan had only received 23 percent of this year's $4.6 billion proposed humanitarian funding.

Why It's Important: These announcements are welcome news for aid workers attempting to save lives in one of the largest humanitarian crises in the world.

The UN estimates that more than two-thirds of Afghanistan's estimated 40 million people need humanitarian assistance. The WFP estimates that more than 3 million Afghans are at risk of famine.

The Taliban's return to power in August 2021 quickly worsened the vast humanitarian crisis millions faced. The impoverished country lost Western aid, which was financing more than 70 percent of the government budget. The economy collapsed as sanctions kicked in against the Taliban leaders.

Yet the UN and international NGOs prevented thousands of deaths and starvation by quickly responding to the humanitarian crisis after utilizing generous funds from Western donors.

What's Next: New funding will help aid agencies prevent a humanitarian catastrophe during the winter, which begins with the first snowfall in November.

However, Western funding for humanitarian organizations in Afghanistan is not guaranteed in the long run. Domestic pressure is likely to prevent Western governments from giving money to a country where the Taliban government has even banned women from working for international aid groups after banning their education and work.

Longer term, Afghanistan's economy is unlikely to quickly turn around under the Taliban's unrecognized government.

What To Keep An Eye On

The caretaker Taliban government is working on a new constitution to establish a permanent government and consultative bodies.

The Taliban’s chief justice, Abdul Hakim Haqqani, is leading the process of writing a constitution, which is under wraps.

“We are still working on the supreme law as we debate [the role of the consultative] councils,” said Zabihullah Mujahid, chief Taliban spokesman. “Once finalized, it will revive all the aspects of governance.”

After seizing power two years ago, the Taliban has imposed a caretaker government comprised of top Taliban leaders, which has been ruling in a legal vacuum by suspending the country’s 2004 constitution.

Why It's Important: Few Afghans believe the Taliban constitution will be framed and adopted in any kind of a democratic, consultative process.

They are concerned that it will be yet another step toward permanently imposing a government by the group that has taken away most fundamental rights and freedoms from Afghans.

“This law is unlikely to be a recipe for a self-governing democratic polity that will pave the way for the international recognition of the Taliban government,” Attiqur Rahman Habib, an Afghan legal expert, told RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi.

That's all from me for now. Don't forget to send me any questions, comments, or tips that you have.

Until next time,

Abubakar Siddique

If you enjoyed this briefing and don't want to miss the next edition, subscribe here. It will be sent to your inbox every Friday.

The Biden administration said on September 21 that it was giving temporary legal status to Afghan migrants who have already been living in the country for a little over a year. The Department of Homeland Security said in the announcement that the decision to give Temporary Protected Status to Afghans who arrived after March 15, 2022, and before Sept. 20, 2023, would affect roughly 14,600 Afghans. This status doesn't give affected Afghans a long-term right to stay in the country or a path to citizenship. It's good until 2025, when it would have to be renewed again. To read the original story by AP, click here.

Mahsa Amini and the women of Iran were nominated for this year's Sakharov Prize, the European Union’s top rights prize, the EU Parliament said on September 20. Amini, the 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman who died in Iran last year while in custody for an alleged hijab infraction, was nominated by the parliament’s three largest blocs, making her the favorite to be chosen for the award in December. Afghan education activists Marzia Amiri, Parasto Hakim, and Matiullah Wesa were nominated, as were the "pro-European people of Georgia" and Nino Lomjaria, former public defender of Georgia. The award will be presented in December.

The United Nations said it had documented hundreds of cases of torture and other "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment" committed by the Taliban de facto authorities in Afghanistan during the arrest and subsequent detention of individuals.

In a report issued on September 20, the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said it had documented more than 1,600 cases of human rights violations -- nearly half of which comprised acts of “torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment” -- committed by the de facto authorities in Afghanistan during arrests and detentions, and the deaths of 18 individuals while in custody. The report covers the period from January 2022 until the end of July 2023, with cases found across 29 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces.

“The personal accounts of beatings, electric shocks, water torture, and numerous other forms of cruel and degrading treatment, along with threats made against individuals and their families, are harrowing. Torture is forbidden in all circumstances,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said in a statement issued with the report.

“This report suggests that torture is also used as a tool -- in lieu of effective investigations. I urge all concerned de facto authorities to put in place concrete measures to halt these abuses and hold perpetrators accountable,” he added.

In a response published with the report, the Taliban-led Foreign Ministry questioned UNAMA’s data and said it had taken steps to improve the human rights situation of detainees.

Since ousting the Western-backed Afghan government and taking over the country in August 2021, the hard-line Taliban has failed to live up to promises of moderation and has instead severely restricted people's freedoms, waged a harsh crackdown on dissent, and reintroduced the militants' brutal form of justice.

Around one in 10 of the violations were against women, the report said. Journalists and civil society members accounted for nearly a quarter of the victims of the violations.

UNAMA considers the extent of torture and other forms of ill-treatment “widely under-reported” and says that the figures presented in the report represent “only a snapshot” of the full scale of human rights violations across Afghanistan.

The report also said that violations of due process guarantees, including the denial of access to lawyers, “are the norm.”

The Taliban claimed the number of reported violations was not accurate, especially the number of journalists or civil society advocates affected. It added that the authorities have taken steps to improve the human rights situation of detainees, and that Islamic law, or Shari'a, prohibits torture.

With reporting by AP and Reuters

Nine people were flogged in an Afghan Taliban-ruled court on September 17. The eight men and one woman, who had been tried and are serving jail time, received 20-39 lashes, according to the information and culture department on social platform X, in the southern province of Zabul. The Supreme Court said the individuals in the provincial court were punished for committing "robbery and illegal relations crimes." Without providing further details, the court said "Tazir" punishment was applied. "Tazir" refers to punishment for offenses at the judge's discretion and usually results in "moderate" flogging intended as a form of discipline and rebuke.

A middle-aged lawyer, Nia Beg, is anxious after a large incursion by Islamist militants rattled his homeland in northwestern Pakistan this month.

Beg is Kalash, and he follows the ancient pagan religion practiced in Bumburet and other remote valleys collectively called Kalash in the northwestern district of Chitral, which borders eastern Afghanistan.

He says that attacks by scores of Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) on several villages in Kalash pose hard questions about the security of Chitral, which had rarely seen Taliban violence and is one of Pakistan's top tourist destinations because of its unique culture and natural beauty.

"My children ask me, 'How will we now go to school or walk freely in our village?'" he told RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal after the Taliban incursion into Chitral that began on September 6.

Pakistan claimed to have repulsed the attack and forced the TTP militants to retreat into Afghanistan.

On September 6, the military said four soldiers and 12 militants were killed in clashes. In a sign that all was not well in Chitral, the government imposed a three-day curfew in the mountainous region.

On September 10, the military said it killed seven more militants in ongoing "sanitization" operations. Gunship helicopters were also used, which suggests some of the TTP militants were well entrenched.

"Residents of Kalash are extremely frightened because the Taliban are religious extremists," Abdul Majeed Qureshi, a local Muslim leader, told Radio Mashaal.

"We want the Taliban attacks to end permanently," he added.

The once-peaceful Chitral region now appears to be in the crosshairs of the TTP, whose insurgency has grown remarkably after its ideological and organizational ally, the Afghan Taliban, returned to power in Afghanistan two years ago.

Experts say the surprise incursion into Chitral showcases the TTP's attempt to reestablish a territorial foothold in Pakistan.

SEE ALSO:

Pakistan Reopens Afghan Border Gate

After its emergence in 2007, the TTP controlled large areas in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province. But by 2014, Islamabad's military operations had forced it to flee into neighboring Afghanistan, which shares a more than 2,600-kilometer border with Pakistan.

"Chitral's complex terrain and geographical importance made it a significant option for the TTP to challenge the state’s territorial control," said Abdul Sayed, a Sweden-based researcher who tracks the TTP.

"The TTP's attack on Chitral is part of its ambition to establish a stronghold on the Pakistani side of the border," he added.

Chitral, now divided into Upper and Lower Chitral districts, consists of high-altitude valleys in the Hindu Kush Mountains. It borders the eastern Afghan provinces of Kunar, Nuristan, and Badakhshan. A narrow strip of Afghan territory separates it from China and Tajikistan, which gives the region great strategic significance.

"The TTP wants to carve out a new safe haven that could serve its objectives," said Ihsanullah Tipu Mehsud, director of news at Khorasan Diary, a website tracking militant groups in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Mehsud argues that the TTP's incursion into Chitral "is very dangerous" because the group might want to carve out other sanctuaries in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces, which form Pakistan's western border with Afghanistan.

After its emergence in 2007 as an umbrella alliance of Pakistani Taliban groups, the TTP swiftly extended its control over large parts of the South Waziristan, North Waziristan, Mohmand, Bajaur, and Swat districts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

SEE ALSO:

'They Can Kill Me At Any Time': Pakistani Journalist Recalls Kidnapping And Alleged Torture By Militants

Years of TTP attacks and the Pakistani Army's counterinsurgency killed more than 80,000 Pakistanis, predominantly ethnic Pashtuns. The violence also displaced more than 6 million Pashtuns.

"The TTP is seeking to restore some of the territorial control it once enjoyed in regions such as Swat and Waziristan," Mehsud said.

TTP violence has risen dramatically since the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021. The Taliban-led government brokered negotiations between Islamabad and the TTP, but these ended in November after the TTP formally declared that its cease-fire with Islamabad was over.

According to the Pakistani Institute for Conflict and Security Studies, a think tank in Islamabad, this August was the most violent month since November 2014.

The TTP claimed some 147 attacks that month. During the first eight months of the year, 227 Pakistanis were killed and 497 were injured in 22 suicide attacks, mostly claimed by the Pakistani Taliban.

The Pakistani military and law enforcement have endured mounting losses. At least 120 soldiers and military officers were killed in militant attacks in the first six months of this year. The police, particularly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, have had similar losses.

Rising TTP violence has sharply deteriorated relations between longtime allies Pakistan and the Afghan Taliban.

Islamabad swiftly closed its main border crossing with Afghanistan in Torkham, which is some 400 kilometers to the south. It has also launched a crackdown on an estimated 3 million Afghan refugees and migrants in the country.

“We expect the Afghan interim authorities…to ensure that Afghan territory is not used as a launching pad for terrorist attacks against Pakistan," said the Foreign Ministry in Islamabad on September 11 in response to a Taliban statement demanding the reopening of Torkham.

The border crossing was reopened on September 15.

Sayed said the mountainous border between Chitral and the eastern Afghan province of Nuristan comprises deserted areas known as No-Man's Land.

“This could give the Afghan Taliban the pretext that the TTP has not attacked from areas under their control,” he said.

Mehsud said the TTP attack was also encouraged by the relatively small presence of security forces in Chitral. It is also the only region where the Pakistani border fencing with Afghanistan is incomplete.

"Things are reaching a boiling point between the two countries," Mehsud noted. "Pakistan might launch surgical attacks or kinetic actions inside Afghanistan to target the TTP leaders and their bases."

On September 10, an improvised explosive device targeted a senior TTP commander, Badshah Khan, in the southeastern Afghan province of Paktika.

In Chitral, civilians remain anxious in the aftermath of the TTP attack.

"People are worried that if the Taliban continues to attack, tourists will stop coming," said Ihkamuddin, a local politician in Bumburet.

Local officials in the central Afghan province where the Taliban detained 18 staffers for a long-serving humanitarian NGO earlier this month suggest the group was suspected of spreading Christianity, RFE/RL's Radio Azadi has learned.

Taliban intelligence and other officials in Kabul have remained silent over the detentions.

The International Assistance Mission (IAM) humanitarian group in Afghanistan on September 15 announced the detention of 18 team members from its offices in Ghor Province between September 3 and 13. It said they all appear to have been transferred to the Afghan capital, Kabul.

IAM and other information suggested the detainees comprise 17 Afghan nationals and a female American surgeon.

Early on September 16, IAM said it still "has not been informed of the reasons for the detention of our staff."

But Taliban officials in Ghor have accused them of spreading Christianity, which can be punished under strict interpretations of Islamic law in Afghanistan.

In a written message to Radio Azadi, Abdul Hai Zaim, the head of information and culture for the Taliban-led government for Ghor Province, confirmed the arrest of the IAM employees and claimed -- without providing evidence -- that they had been promoting Christianity.

The fundamentalist Taliban, who retook control of Afghanistan as U.S.-led international forces withdrew in 2021, have imposed a particularly harsh form of Shari'a law on the country when they have been in power at various points in the past four decades.

The internationally unrecognized Taliban-led government in Afghanistan has been accused by UN and other international officials of grave human rights offenses against non-Muslims, women, and minorities.

IAM said on September 16 that it had inquired with the Taliban-led Afghan government's Finance Ministry and was "working together with the UN and ACBAR, the coordinating body for NGOs in Afghanistan," to seek the release of the staff members.

IAM has worked in Afghanistan for nearly six decades, it said.

"IAM has worked in Afghanistan alongside Afghan communities for 57 years and we value and respect local customs and cultures. We stand by the principle that 'aid will not be used to further a particular political or religious standpoint,'" it said, adding, "All IAM staff agree to abide by the laws of Afghanistan."

The Pentagon's Central Command has ordered interviews of roughly two dozen more service members who were at the Kabul airport when suicide bombers attacked during U.S. forces' chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal, as criticism persists that the deadly assault could have been stopped. The interviews are meant to see if service members who were not included in the original investigation have new or different information. The decision, according to officials, does not reopen the administration’s investigation into the deadly bombing and the withdrawal two years ago. But the additional interviews will likely be seized on by congressional critics, mostly Republican. To read the original story by AP, click here.

A top U.S. diplomat to Afghanistan has categorically ruled out Washington's support for a new war in the nation, saying Afghans "deserve some peace" after more than four decades of international conflict ended two years ago when American and international troops left as Taliban militants seized power.

In an interview with RFE/RL's Radio Azadi, Karen Decker, the chargé d’affaires of the U.S. mission to Afghanistan, dismissed any support for anti-Taliban armed factions such as the National Resistance Front (NRF) and the Afghanistan Freedom Front (AFF), saying Afghans themselves have been adamantly against the launch of any new conflict.

“No. Absolutely not! We do not support renewed conflict in Afghanistan. Full stop," she said in response to a question about whether Washington would support these groups.

"The one overwhelming message I hear from Afghans inside the country is no more war," she said, adding that Washington would "support" and "promote" a dialogue among Afghans.

Most of its neighbors have resisted supporting another round of war in Afghanistan after the hard-line Islamist Taliban swept to power in the wake of the final withdrawal of U.S.-led NATO troops two years ago.

After the pro-Western Afghan republic collapsed on August 15, 2021, some defunct Afghan security force members joined the NRF and other smaller groups to attack Taliban forces in the northern provinces of Panjshir and Baghlan. This raised the possibility that four decades of war in Afghanistan could enter a new phase.

Ahmad Massoud, the NRF’s leader in exile, recently visited Moscow in what was seen as an effort to win support for the NRF and pressure the Taliban, which has marked its two years in power so far by severely restricting rights and freedoms, especially for women.

Decker, however, questioned whether the Kremlin could support a new Afghanistan conflict.

"The Russians are kind of busy right now doing something else in Ukraine, so I don't know if that is a realistic scenario," she noted in a thinly veiled reference to Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which continues to take a heavy toll on its military resources.

“Any proxy warfare? Absolutely not,” she said. “The Afghan people have had more than 40 years of war. They deserve some peace.”

Decker said that Washington supports a dialogue among Afghans to work out the future of their country, including forming an inclusive government.

After returning to power, the Taliban's internationally unrecognized government has refused to share power with other Afghan political groups and armed factions.

Instead, it has recreated its extremist Islamic emirate. Exclusively led by senior Taliban leaders, the de facto government has banned women from education, work, and public life. The Taliban has also denied Afghans many fundamental rights and freedoms.

Taliban officials, however, point to a commission as evidence of their willingness to embrace reconciliation among citizens in the country.

The commission has invited former senior government members and state officials to come back to the country as long as they do not participate in politics.

The ruling Taliban has detained 18 staff members of the International Assistance Mission (IAM) in Afghanistan from the humanitarian group's offices in the central Ghor Province, including an American surgeon. The IAM said in a statement on September 15 that it believed all 18 of the team members had been transferred to the Afghan capital, Kabul. The group said the detentions had taken place over 11 days. The long-serving NGO said, "We are unaware of the circumstances that led to these incidents and have not been advised of the reason for the detention of our staff members." To read the original story by RFE/RL's Radio Azadi, click here.

Welcome to The Azadi Briefing, an RFE/RL newsletter that unpacks the key issues in Afghanistan. To subscribe for free, click here.

I'm Malali Bashir, senior editor for women's programs at RFE/RL's Radio Azadi. Here's what I've been tracking and what I'm keeping an eye on in the days ahead.

The Key Issue

Millions of impoverished Afghans are bearing the brunt of receding international aid to Afghanistan, the world's largest humanitarian crisis.

International organizations operating in the country have been forced to cut their assistance to Afghans in the fields of health care and food aid in recent months, largely due to funding shortages.

The UN World Food Program (WFP) said last week that it would cut emergency assistance to 2 million vulnerable Afghans by the end of the month because of a "massive funding shortage."

Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross stopped funding 25 hospitals across Afghanistan on August 31, citing a lack of resources.

The drop in foreign assistance has directly impacted the lives of Afghans, many of whom are reeling from the devastating economic impact of the Taliban's seizure of power in 2021.

"We used to survive on food assistance [from the WFP]," Zarmina, a resident of the northern province of Parwan, told RFE/RL's Radio Azadi. "But now this assistance has been cut off and my situation is dire."

Zarmina, 27, is the sole breadwinner for her family of six. She said her family received around 4,000 afghanis ($50) worth of food handouts every six weeks from the WFP.

"There's no work for me," she said. "It's very difficult. What are we going to do?"

Why It's Important: Declining international assistance will worsen the devastating humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan.

Around 6 million people -- out of a population of around 40 million -- are already on the brink of starvation, according to the UN.

Wahidullah Amani, the spokesperson for the WFP in Afghanistan, told Radio Azadi that the lack of aid will specifically affect women and children, the most vulnerable segments of society.

"My children suffer from malnourishment because they don't have enough food to eat," Hamidullah, a resident of the southeastern province of Khost, told Radio Azadi.

"All Afghans have the same problem. We ask all humanitarian organizations to help Afghans," added Hamidullah, who is the head of an extended family of 20.

What's Next: The cash-strapped Taliban government, which is unrecognized and under international sanctions, appears unable or unwilling to alleviate the economic and humanitarian crisis in the country.

Some Afghans have called on the militant group to do more to create employment opportunities and deliver food to the most needy. "The government should solve these problems and provide a chance for people to find work," said Samiullah, a resident of the eastern province of Nangarhar.

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Afghanistan has seen a surge in the number of female suicides since the Taliban takeover, making the country one of the few in the world where more women take their own lives than men. The spike comes amid the Taliban's severe restrictions on women's lives, including their right to education and employment.

What To Keep An Eye On

China has become the first country to formally name a new ambassador to Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover.

The Chinese envoy presented his credentials to the Taliban's prime minister at a ceremony in Kabul on September 13.

The Taliban government has not been recognized by any country in the world. It was unclear if Beijing's appointment was a step towards formal recognition.

"This is the normal rotation of China's ambassador to Afghanistan, and is intended to continue advancing dialogue and cooperation between China and Afghanistan," China's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Why It's Important: It is unclear if the appointment signals China's growing interest in Afghanistan.

After the Taliban takeover, there was a surge in Chinese traders visiting Afghanistan to explore business opportunities and ink deals. The Taliban has boasted of Beijing's interest in expanding trade and investing billions of dollars in Afghanistan's mining sector.

But experts have said that China's relationship with the Taliban has been limited and largely transactional.

Experts said Beijing's primary concern in Afghanistan is the threat posed by members of the Turkestan Islamic Party (TIP), an Uyghur extremist group. The Taliban has been accused of sheltering the militants.

That's all from me for now. Don't forget to send me any questions, comments, or tips that you have. You can always reach us at azadi.english@rferl.org.

Until next time,

Malali Bashir

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Customs officials reopened a key border crossing between Afghanistan and Pakistan to trucks and pedestrians early on September 15, nine days after the Torkham checkpoint was closed when a gunbattle reportedly erupted between Taliban troops and Pakistani border guards.

The gateway is on a key transit route between the tense South Asian neighbors and is a vital link for residents on both sides of the border. It lies at the end of Pakistan's N-5 National Highway about 5 kilometers west of the Khyber Pass summit.

Sporadic closures have raised fears of deteriorating Pakistan-Taliban relations two years after the radical fundamentalist group took control of Afghanistan as U.S.-led international troops withdrew after two decades of war.

The Afghan Taliban's alleged support of Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) extremists is at the center of tensions.

The closure created massive lines of hundreds of stranded trucks and left thousands, including sick people seeking medical treatment across the border, seeking shelter in local mosques and other places.

The head of the Afghan-Pakistani Joint Chamber of Commerce said the closure had cost businesses millions of dollars.

The acting foreign minister for the Taliban-led Afghan government late on September 14 urged Pakistani authorities to reopen transit routes. That discussion followed a week of efforts to reach agreement on ensuring security and other aspects of a reopening.

The Pakistani Army took control of the area of Khyber district from Torkham to the Lundi Kotal checkpoint after a firefight on September 6 between Pakistani and Taliban troops.

There were contradictory reports of casualties in that incident, which reportedly began when Pakistani guards intervened after the Taliban tried to erect a structure on the Afghan side of the gate.

Torkham has undergone sporadic closures since the Taliban-led government in Afghanistan took over in August 2021.

In early August, Torkham was closed briefly after another clash between Pakistani border forces and Taliban guards.

An Afghan soldier who fled the Taliban and traveled through nearly a dozen countries before being arrested at the Texas-Mexico border and detained for months has been granted asylum, allowing him to remain in the United States, his brother said on September 13. Abdul Wasi Safi, 27, is one of tens of thousands of Afghan citizens who fled to the United States following the withdrawal of its forces from Afghanistan in August 2021. The soldier worried that if he wasn't granted asylum, he could be sent back to Afghanistan, where he would likely be killed by the Taliban because he had worked with the U.S. military. Two of his brothers live in Houston. To read the original story by AP, click here.

China has become the first country to formally name a new ambassador to Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover, after its envoy presented credentials at a ceremony in Kabul. The Taliban has not been officially recognized by any foreign government, and Beijing did not indicate whether the September 13 appointment signaled any wider steps toward formal recognition of the Taliban. "This is the normal rotation of China's ambassador to Afghanistan, and is intended to continue advancing dialogue and cooperation between China and Afghanistan," China's Foreign Ministry said in a statement. "China's policy towards Afghanistan is clear and consistent." To read the original story by Reuters, click here.

Police in the southern Pakistani province of Sindh have arrested more than 250 Afghan refugees and migrants as part of a new crackdown aimed at repatriating undocumented Afghans.

Most of the arrests and detentions have occurred in Karachi since September 11. The seaport is the capital of Sindh and also serves as the key industrial and trade hub for the Muslim nation.

"The government has directed the police and other [law enforcement] organizations to arrest Afghans living illegally in Sindh and elsewhere in the country," Kamran Tissori, the governor of Sindh, told journalists on September 11.

Afghan refugees and Pakistani human rights campaigners say the arrests are aimed at harassing mostly impoverished Afghans who cannot return to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan because of security fears or economic reasons.

"The mass arrest of Afghan refugees is based on their racial profiling," Muniza Kakar, a lawyer who has voluntarily represented Afghan refugees arrested in Karachi, wrote on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

• RFE/RL
• AFP

Trucks remain stranded amid growing tensions at the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, following a firefight that led to the closure of the countries' main crossing point.

Kakar said that many of the detained Afghans possessed cards issued by the Pakistani government identifying them as Afghans.

"Urgent action needed to protect refugee rights," she wrote.

Afghan refugees in Pakistan complain of harassment and a lack of information and help in completing the paperwork needed for extending their stay in the country.

“After my Pakistani visa ended in July, I repeatedly applied to extend it but the government, unfortunately, has not processed it,” said one such refugee, who said his name was Ahmad.

“The Pakistani government announcement has created huge pressure and most of us now face mental health problems,” he told RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi.

The Pakistani government issued Proof of Registration cards for more than 1 million Afghans that expired on June 30.

Qaiser Khan Afridi, a spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told Radio Mashaal that the UNHCR is discussing the issue with the federal authorities in Islamabad.*

"I am extremely afraid of being arrested whenever I go to the market to buy groceries," said Aimal Habibi, an Afghan refugee in Sindh.

Since the early 1980s, Pakistan has hosted one of the largest refugee populations in the world.

But it has not signed the 1951 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. It also is not a signatory of the 1967 protocol, which broadens the definition of who can be considered a refugee.

Islamabad currently hosts about 1.4 million documented Afghan refugees. An equal number of undocumented Afghans are estimated to also be living in the country.

*Correction: A previous version of this story misquoted the spokesman for the UNHCR about an extension of the deadline.

A hunger strike by a group of Afghan rights activists to protest the anti-female policies of the ruling Taliban has entered its second week as they seek international recognition of the militants' policies as "gender apartheid."

The protest that began on September 1 in the German city of Cologne comes after the Taliban rulers who seized power in the country two years ago banned women from education and from working in most economic sectors. The hard-line Islamist group has also banned women from visiting parks and imposed strict restrictions on their movement and how they can appear in public.

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Draconian Decrees: The Taliban's Restrictions In Afghanistan

Zarmina Paryani, whose sister Tamana Zaryab Paryani was taken to the hospital on the night of September 9 after her health rapidly deteriorated because of the hunger strike, struck a defiant tone, saying that "until Tamana’s demands are heard, she will not end her strike.”

"She told doctors she could not leave her comrades alone and returned straight to the protest camp from the hospital,” Zarmina Paryani told RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi.

The two sisters and several other Afghan women activists said they launched the strike after hundreds of protests inside Afghanistan and internationally failed to produce any results.

The protest has attracted solidarity and support from rights activists in Europe and Pakistan, they say.

“There is gender apartheid in Afghanistan,” said Ziauddin Yousafzai, the father of Pakistani Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai, who visited the protesters in Cologne on September 11.

“Under the Taliban, there is no notion of a public life for women,” he told RFE/RL’s Radio Mashaal.

In the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, Roqia Saee, an Afghan women’s rights activist, is leading a hunger strike in solidarity with the activists in Cologne.

“We will continue the strike until the United Nations, countries of the region and the world, and those who support human rights pay attention to our demand,” she told Radio Azadi.

Since July, UN experts and senior officials have said the Taliban’s systematic restrictions on women and girls could amount to "gender apartheid."

The Taliban, however, has so far resisted all international and domestic pressure calling for a change in policies toward women.