Category: Afghanistan

The campaign, which got underway on May 15, intends to immunize 6.4 million kids in 23 provinces of Afghanistan….reports Asian Lite News

Afghanistan’s Taliban-led Ministry of Public Health on Monday announced a four-day polio vaccination campaign across 23 provinces of Afghanistan, Khaama Press reported.

The campaign, which got underway on May 15, intends to immunize 6.4 million kids in 23 provinces of Afghanistan. Afghanistan on Sunday reported its first death due to poliovirus in 2023 in Nangarhar, reported Tolo News.

The Ministry of Public Health reported two cases of polio in Nangarhar. A spokesman for the Health Ministry, Sharafat Zaman Amerkhail said that these two cases have been reported in the Koot and Batikoot districts of Nangarhar province. One polio-stricken child has died.

“In these two cases, one child is four years old and the other is 11. One of them lost their life,” said Amerkhail.

Family members of the child who died in Batikoot district said that one year ago, their child was infected with polio and was paralyzed from the neck down and after severe diarrhoea died in the hospital. The child was named Nazo, reported Tolo News.

“Her neck became paralyzed. She couldn’t control it. We took her to the hospital and on the night of Eid she died,” said Iqbal Shah, the grandfather of Nazo.

“After this disease (polio), her feet become tiny. Her stomach become acidic, she lost control of her neck and she couldn’t digest food,” said Zarmina, the mother of Nazo.

Meanwhile in Pakistan, the Health Ministry has confirmed the detection of wild poliovirus in an environmental sample from South Waziristan district in Pakistan’s northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province.

The wild poliovirus type 1 was isolated from a sewage sample collected from the Qureshi Mohalla area of the district on April 19, the Ministry said in a statement on Saturday.

The virus is genetically linked to poliovirus found in a sewage sample collected from the same district in September 2022, it added.

The Pakistan Polio Eradication Program is conducting tests for poliovirus at 114 fixed environmental sites in the country every month, said the statement as quoted by Xinhua news agency report.

“To further enhance surveillance in high-risk areas, it has also been collecting additional sewage samples from multiple sites in southern KP periodically, and this latest detection is from one such collection site,” according to the Ministry. (ANI/IANS)

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Family members of the child who died in Batikoot district said that one year ago their child was infected with polio and was paralyzed from the neck down…reports Asian Lite News

Afghanistan on Sunday reported its first death due to poliovirus in 2023 in Nangarhar, reported Tolo News.

The Ministry of Public Health reported two cases of polio in Nangarhar. A spokesman for the Health Ministry, Sharafat Zaman Amerkhail said that these two cases have been reported in Koot and Batikoot districts of Nangarhar province. One polio-stricken child has died. “In these two cases, one child is 4 years old and the other is 11. One of them lost their life and we want to start a polio vaccination campaign to prevent this disease,” said Amerkhail.

Family members of the child who died in Batikoot district said that one year ago their child was infected with polio and was paralyzed from the neck down and after severe diarrhoea died in the hospital.

The child was named Nazo, reported Tolo News.

“Her neck became paralyzed. She couldn’t control it. We took her to the hospital and on the night of Eid she died,” said Iqbal Shah, the grandfather of Nazo.

“After this disease (polio) her feet become tiny. Her stomach become acidic, she lost control of her neck and she couldn’t digest food,” said Zarmina, the mother of Nazo.

Meanwhile, the Health Ministry said they will start a polio vaccination campaign soon.

A total of 56 cases of polio were reported in Afghanistan in 2020, while four cases were reported in 2021. Two instances of polio were reported last year. The number of polio cases in the country has hence been dropping.

Polio is a severely contagious and disabling disease typically spread through contaminated water or food. The infection can induce complete paralysis within hours after invading the nervous system.

As per reports, the contagious virus thrived in the borderland between Pakistan and Afghanistan, where terrorists attacked anti-polio teams, as per Khaama Press. (ANI)

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Agha said that the final decision regarding the reopening of the schools will be made by religious clerics….reports Asian Lite News

Afghanistan’s acting Minister of Education under the Taliban has said the conditions for the reopening of schools for girls above grade six have yet to become suitable, Afghanistan-based Tolo News reported.

The minister Sayed Habibullah Agha made the remarks to reporters on a visit to Panjshir province. Agha said that the final decision regarding the reopening of the schools will be made by religious clerics.

“When the conditions are prepared, based on Sharia law and cooperation with the nation and the religious scholars, the schools will be reopened,” said Agha.

This comes as local officials in Panjshir said there will be a seminary established in the province where more than 1,000 students will be able to study, according to Tolo News.

Panjshir governor Mohammad Mohsin Hashimi said: “Panjshir province has played an equal role with all the other provinces. There will be a ‘Jihadi seminary’ for 1,000 Talib (students) approved for Panjshir.”

“It (Islamic Emirate) opened another door so that if anyone does not like school or university, the better place for them is seminary. I hope they will use this seminary,” said Abdullah Sadid, a religious cleric.

The Taliban-led acting Minister of Education said the “Jihadi” seminaries have been established based on the decree of the Islamic Emirate’s leader in all provinces of the country.

Afghans recently demanded that girls and women be granted access to education and work in the country. This comes amid an ongoing international meeting of the UN in Doha.

A UN meeting chaired by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and attended by representatives of more than 20 countries and organizations was held in Doha.

Some Afghan women criticised the lack of women’s representatives in the meeting. They also argued that participants should make an effort to remove restrictions on women’s work and education in Afghanistan, according to Tolo News. (ANI)

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Thousands of malnourished children in Afghanistan face severe consequences because of a critical funding gap…reports Asian Lite News

United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) in Afghanistan warned of a critical funding gap to provide essential medical food for severe acute malnutrition in the country, Khaama Press reported.

Thousands of malnourished children in Afghanistan face severe consequences because of a critical funding gap, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). Melanie Galvin, UNICEF’s Chief of Nutrition, said on the organization’s official Twitter account on Thursday that it urgently needs additional funding to provide severe acute malnutrition children with ready-t-use medical food (RUTF) and life-saving treatment.

Galvin noted that this year, 875,000 children in Afghanistan suffer from severe acute malnutrition. Without treatment, thousands of children are life-threatening, Khaama Press reported.

Severe malnutrition can be treated with RUTF, a “highly efficient and effective” treatment, “in as little as eight weeks,” Galvin said. However, she noted that UNICEF lacked the USD 21 million necessary resources to purchase RUTF and train health workers across Afghanistan.

“In Afghanistan, we’re facing a critical funding gap for ready-to-use therapeutic food. Without additional funds to stock health facilities with this lifesaving treatment, thousands of children could die from severe acute malnutrition,” UNICEF wrote on Twitter quoting an Afghan woman.

This comes a day after the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) expressed concern over running out of funding for humanitarian assistance in the country, Khaama Press reported.

With adequate funding, humanitarian partners can reduce large-scale hunger, prevent disease outbreaks & reduce the chances of women dying giving birth, OCHA said in a tweet.

Meanwhile, the organization called for timely funding to support people in need. “The price of doing nothing has never been higher. Timely funding is needed to support people in need,” it added.

The UN estimates that 28 million people in Afghanistan require humanitarian aid, and the Taliban’s restrictions on women have worsened the situation, Khaama Press reported. (ANI)

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Female students claimed that after being denied admission to schools, they started new companies to help themselves and their families…reports Asian Lite News

Due to the Taliban-imposed ban on access to education for girls and women students in Afghanistan, some of them have launched their own enterprises in order to support their families economically, TOLOnews reported.

They claimed that after being denied admission to schools, they started new companies to help themselves and their families. A student of law and political science faculty at one of Kabul’s universities told TOLOnews that she has opened a clothes and cosmetics shop.

“We work here, but our employees cannot replace our studies. To ensure our future and the future of our nation, as well as its development, we must study to become professionals,” she said.

Afghan girls have repeatedly called on the Taliban to immediately open schools and universities for them, however, there is no development on the situation of females’ right to education in the country hit by economic and humanitarian crises.

In a separate statement, Atefa, a resident of Kabul said, “We are happy to see that our sisters are working under the rule of the Islamic Emirate. We can easily buy what we need from them.”

“Universities and schools are closed to girls. We see that girls are selling things here, and we buy our necessary things from them easily,” said another resident of Kabul, Madina, according to TOLOnews.

Taliban has rolled back a wide range of human rights of women and girls, including a ban on attending high school and university, restrictions on movement and work, and in December, a decree banning female nationals from working in most NGOs.

Facing decades-long conflict, Afghanistan grapples with numerous challenges including a food shortage as foreign governments are cutting development funding and imposing sanctions, in large part due to the Taliban’s restrictions on women.

Despite widespread condemnation, there are still restrictions on how many women can work for the UN, including a ban on girls’ higher education beyond the sixth grade, Khaama Press reported.

Since the Taliban regained power in August 2021 after the US exit from the country, women are not allowed to work in the fields of education with domestic and international organisations, in gyms, or in public spaces. (ANI)

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The Taliban-led Foreign Ministry of Afghanistan in response said most Afghans adhere to Islamic rules and guidance and that Afghanistan’s laws are based on Islamic principles…reports Asian Lite News

The United Nations has called on the Taliban to halt flogging and execution in Afghanistan, Khaama Press reported.

Human Rights Chief of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, Fiona Frazer, in a statement said the Taliban’s corporal punishment is against international law. She urged the Taliban leadership to halt all executions immediately.

“Corporal punishment is a violation of the Convention against Torture and must cease,” said Fiona Frazer, the agency’s human rights chief. She also called for an immediate moratorium on executions, according to Khaama Press.

The Taliban-led Foreign Ministry of Afghanistan in response said most Afghans adhere to Islamic rules and guidance and that Afghanistan’s laws are based on Islamic principles.

The Taliban-led ministry said: “In the event of a conflict between international human rights law and Islamic law, the government is obliged to follow the Islamic law.”

Meanwhile, a UN report released on Monday strongly criticized the Taliban for carrying out execution, floggings and stoning since gaining control of Afghanistan. It urged the Taliban leaders to put an immediate end to such practices.

According to the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) report, 274 men, 58 women and two boys were publicly flogged in Afghanistan during the past six months.

The Taliban authorities in the first public execution since it came into power in Afghanistan, executed an Afghan man found guilty of murder in December 2022, according to the report.

In front of hundreds of spectators, including senior Taliban officials, the victim’s father executed him in the western province of Farah using an assault rifle.

The Taliban has increased restrictions on women and banned them from public areas like education, university, parks and gym.

According to Khaama Press, the restriction has caused a global uproar, deepening the country’s isolation at a time when its economy is in freefall. (ANI)

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Some farmers whose poppy fields have been destroyed asked the current government to provide them with alternative crops….reports Asian Lite News

The counter-narcotics department of the Taliban-led Ministry of Interior (MoI) has said that so far, it has destroyed 4,000 hectares of poppy fields in the country, Afghanistan-based Tolo News reported.

Head of the Taliban-led MoI, Hasibullah Ahmadi, said the process of destroying poppy fields is ongoing in Badakhshan, Kunduz, Takhar and Faryab provinces.
“About 4000 thousand hectares of land have been cleared of drug cultivation in the center and provinces of the country,” Ahmadi noted, according to Tolo News.

As per the Kabul Security Command, after the Taliban returned to power, more than 1,000 people were arrested in connection with drug trafficking and its sales in the capital.

“1000 suspects have been arrested and turned over to the law in Kabul. These were the narcotics sellers and smugglers,” said Kabul security department spokesman Khalid Zadran, according to Tolo News.

Some farmers whose poppy fields have been destroyed asked the current government to provide them with alternative crops.

“We ask the current government to provide us with an alternative to opium cultivation and help us because our children are dying of hunger,” said Wali Mohammad, a resident of Uruzgan.

The Taliban-led Ministry of Interior (MoI)’s counter-narcotics department said that based on the surveys of recent years, there are between 3.5 million and four million drug users in the nation. The MoI has recently begun a new survey on the matter. (ANI)

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