How Afghanistan improved its health in 10 years despite bombs and bullets

After the fall of the Taliban in 2001 and as a country recovering from conflict, Afghanistan had some of the worst health indicators in the world. More than one-in-two (54%) children under five were stunted and around four-in-ten (39%) children were underweight in Afghanistan in 2004. It ranked 181/182 on the human development index, ranked the worst in stunting prevalence across the world and its under-five mortality was 257 per 1,000 live births.

In just 10 years, despite conflict and widespread poverty, Afghanistan made significant improvements in its health indicators: Under-five mortality reduced 29%, stunting declined from 54% in 2004 to 40% and underweight children declined from 39% to 20% in 2013.

Coverage of several maternal care interventions increased: Antenatal care–care during pregnancy–increased from 16% to 53%, births assisted by a skilled birth attendant from 14% to 46%, and births in a health facility from 13% to 39%. Childhood vaccinations doubled from 40% to 80% during this time.

The reduction in stunting has a lot to do with the health ministry’s focus on early breastfeeding and convergence of various ministries and aid agencies to achieve the goal, according to Homayoun Ludin, director of public nutrition, Ministry of Public Health.

Russia-Pak friendship new, Moscow has no influence in Islamabad: US

Amid increased bonhomie between Russia and Pakistan, the White House believes that Moscow does not have a great influence on Islamabad, a senior Trump Administration official has said.

"I don't particularly believe that there is a great deal of influence that Russia is asserting (over Pakistan) even though I do acknowledge they have a better relationship than they had five years ago," a senior administration official has said.

The official was responding to questions on the recent increase in relationship between Russia and Pakistan and how much influence it has over Islamabad.

"But Russia as of now does not have a great deal of influence over Pakistan, with which its ties is relatively new," the official said who on condition of anonymity.

"I think the Russia-Pakistan relationship is still something relatively new," the senior administration official said noting that Pakistan, being an independent country is making its own assessment and doing what it considers is in its own interests.

However, the official said that the Russian thinking that the Taliban can help fight ISIS is a flawed approach.

Most of the US soldiers who perished last year were in operations against ISIS in Afghanistan.
READ MORE

Pak summons US ambassador over Trump's outburst over Twitter

Pakistan has summoned US Ambassador David Hale to register its protest after President Donald Trump accused the country of lying and deceiving America by sheltering terrorists while receiving billions of dollars in foreign aid, a media report said on Tuesday.

The Pakistan Foreign Office (FO) summoned Hale on Monday's night. Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua sought an explanation from Hale over Trump's remarks, The Express Tribune reported.

There was no immediate response from foreign office officials.

Trump, on Monday,  tore into Pakistan accusing it of giving nothing to the US but "lies and deceit" and providing "safe haven" to terrorists in return for $33 billion aid over the last 15 years thinking of American leaders as "fools".

In his strongest attack against Pakistan yet, Trump in his first tweet of the year on New Year's day also appeared to suggest he could cut off foreign aid to Pakistan.

"The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools," Trump tweeted on New Year's Day.

"They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!"

Pakistan Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif responded immediately and said, "...Will let the world know the truth... difference between facts and fiction."
READ MORE

Chabahar: China hopes port launch conducive to regional peace

China today hoped that the launch of the strategic Chabahar port in Iran which enables India to directly trade with Afghanistan besides rivalling Pakistan's Gwadar port is conducive to regional peace and stability.

The first phase of the Chabahar port on the Gulf of Oman coast was inaugurated yesterday by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, opening a new strategic route connecting Iran, India and Afghanistan while bypassing Pakistan, and reflecting growing convergence of interests among the three countries.

The port in Iran's Sistan-Balochistan province on the energy-rich nation's southern coast is easily accessible from India's western coast and is increasingly seen as a counter to Pakistan's Gwadar port, which is being developed with Chinese investment and is located around 80 kms from Chabahar.

Asked how China views the launch of the project, considering that China is investing heavily in Gwadar as part of the USD 50 billion ChinaPakistan Economic Corridor, foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang declined to comment on it directly.

"As for the (Chabahar) port, I want to give you a principled answer. We welcome the development of friendly relations between the regional countries and conduct mutually beneficial cooperation," he said.
READ MORE

US Congress passes $700 bn defence bill; seeks to advance ties with India

The United States Congress today passed a nearly $700 billion American defence budget for 2018, which, among other things, seeks advancement in defence cooperation with India.

The 2018 National Defence Authorisation Act (NDAA) sailed through both the chambers of the Congress House of Representatives and the Senate by a voice vote.

It now heads to the White House for President Donald Trump to sign it into law, which he is expected to do before the Thanksgiving holidays.

The budget also imposes tougher conditions on Pakistan for military and security assistance and accommodates last minute additional White House's financial request implementing its new South Asia strategy.

The NDAA-2018 asks the Secretary of State and the Defence Secretary to come out with a common definition that recognises India's status as a "Major Defence Partner".

Welcoming the move, top Republican Senator Ted Cruz said few partnerships in the 21st century carried more strategic significance than the US-India partnership.

During the legislative process, Cruz secured an amendment that calls on the Department of Defence to reassess its approach to partnering with India and to appoint an individual to oversee this process.
READ MORE

Pentagon must show Pakistan consequences of supporting terror: US lawmakers

The Pentagon must "demonstrate" to Pakistan the "consequences" of continued support to terrorists, US Congressional leaders have said as they came out in support of President Donald Trump's new South Asia policy.

Trump in August unveiled America's new policy for South Asia and Afghanistan, criticising Pakistan for providing safe havens to terrorists.

The bipartisan group of Congressional leaders, reconciling the differences between the House and Senate versions of the 2018 National defense Authorisation Act (NDAA), also urged the Department of Defense to closely monitor US security assistance to Pakistan and ensure that the country does not use it to support terrorist groups.

The lawmakers, in a joint report of the Senate and House Armed Services committees released yesterday, asked the Pentagon to "demonstrate to Pakistan the consequences of continued support to terrorists".

Such a demand from lawmakers comes days after the Indian security forces recovered US-made rifle meant for Pakistan from terrorist in Jammu and Kashmir.
READ MORE

Afghan deputy governor of Kunar province kidnapped in Pakistan

Unidentified kidnappers bundled the deputy governor of Afghanistan’s northwestern province of Kunar into a car in the Pakistani city of Peshawar and took him away, police sources said on Sunday.

Mohammad Nabi Ahmadi had crossed over from Afghanistan into Pakistan with his brother and was walking down a road in the northwestern city of Peshawar when a car with tinted windows pulled up and overpowered the Afghan official, according to a Peshawar police source.

The police source said Ahmadi’s brother recounted the episode to Pakistani police, but did not disclose that his brother was a high-ranking Afghan provincial government official.

“It was afterwards we came to know from other sources that he was deputy governor of Kunar,” said the police official.

Abdul Ghani Musamem, the spokesman for the governor of Kunar, confirmed Ahmadi had gone missing in Peshawar on Friday and added that he had been on leave for medical treatment.

Wealthy Afghans frequently cross the border for medical treatment in Pakistan. Many Afghans live in Peshawar and it is also common for influential figures in Afghanistan to have business or family links in the Pashtun regions of Pakistan.

READ MORE

Afghan President and US Secretary of State to land in New Delhi today

Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani is scheduled to visit India on Tuesday morning, while US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is also slated to land here on a three-day visit on Tuesday evening.

According to the ministry of external affairs, Ghani would land in Delhi at 8.10am and leave at 5.20pm, before Tillerson is to arrive. Ghani will have delegation-level talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the afternoon.

Ghani and Tillerson are unlikely to meet in Delhi. The two met in Kabul on Monday. Tillerson is on a week’s visit to Asia. According to a statement by the US Embassy in Kabul, Tillerson said in his meeting with Ghani that the “new US strategy for South Asia makes clear the US’ commitment to working with the government of Afghanistan and with partners across the region and to deny safe havens to terrorists who threaten that goal.”

The Afghan president’s day-long working visit to Delhi, therefore, comes on the heels of a series of developments. Tillerson is also slated to visit Islamabad.

Recently, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s special envoy, Zamir Kabulov, was in Delhi and held discussions with National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar. The discussions related to regional security. Kabulov, as Putin's special representative, is responsible for Moscow’s Afghanistan policy.
READ MORE

What killed the promise of Muslim communism?

For a brief moment after the Bolshevik uprisings of 1917, it looked like revolution might be waged across vast swaths of the world under the joint banner of Communism and Islam.

Pan-Islam had emerged in the final decades of the Ottoman Empire, with the efforts of Sultan Abdulhamid II to lay claim to the title of caliph among Muslims. New forms of Islamic schooling and associations began to emerge across the Arab world and beyond. From Egypt and Iraq to India and the Indonesian archipelago, Islam became a rallying call against European colonialism and imperialism.

Islam’s mobilizing power attracted Communist activists in the 1910s and 1920s. The Bolsheviks, who lacked organizational infrastructure in the vast Muslim lands of the former Russian empire, allied with Islamic reformers in those areas. They created a special Commissariat for Muslim Affairs under the Tatar Bolshevik Mirsaid Sultan-Galiev, promising to establish a distinctive “Muslim Communism” across the Caucasus and Central Asia. During the 1920 Congress of the Peoples of the East in Baku, in what is today Azerbaijan, the Comintern chairman Grigory Zinoviev, a Ukrainian Jew, called for waging a “holy war” against Western imperialism.

But as we now know, Communism and Islam failed to coalesce into a lasting alliance. By the onset of the Cold War, they seemed irrevocably opposed. Differing views about Communism divided Muslims across Asia, Africa and the Middle East in their struggles for independence and emancipation during the second half of the 20th century. An anti-Communist jihad fundamentally remade Afghanistan in the 1980s and helped set the stage for the rise of Al Qaeda and the emergence of a new form of Islamist terrorism.
READ MORE

China, Pakistan take swipes at Trump's Afghan policy

Pakistan has lauded China's "constructive role" in the process for a politically negotiated settlement of the Afghan conflict.

Addressing a joint press conference after his meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing, Pakistan Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif said that the two countries are in favour of a political solution for the Afghan conflict and not military.

Asif, who arrived in China on Friday, appreciated China's "constructive role" in the process for a politically negotiated settlement of the Afghan conflict, saying that Pakistan and China can together contribute to a political solution to the conflict.

He is in China as a part of his regional outreach for consultations on the new US policy on Afghanistan and South Asia

"Pakistan strongly adheres to one-China policy: We support Beijing on its core issues of Taiwan, Tibet, Xinjiang and South China Sea," the Dawn quoted Asif as saying.

He said Operations Zarb-i-Azb and Raddul Fasaad have yielded positive results against terrorist groups including East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM).

He added that ETIM is a threat not only for China but also to Pakistan.

China had repeatedly blamed ETIM for carrying out attacks in its far western region of Xinjiang.
READ MORE

'Foreign ministers of China, Pakistan, Afghanistan to hold talks in 2017'

The foreign ministers of China, Pakistan, and Afghanistan will hold their first trilateral talks within this year, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Friday.

Wang made the remarks during a press conference after a meeting with visiting Pakistan Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif, Xinhua news agency reported.

He said Pakistan and Afghanistan are important countries in the region and he hoped the two nations could work together to safeguard stability in the region.

China attaches great importance to the relations with Pakistan and Afghanistan, and actively helps the two countries narrow their differences and enhance mutual trust. It is also exploring opportunities to develop cooperation among the three countries, Wang said.

Through consultations, the three countries' Foreign Ministers will hold their first trilateral talks this year, Wang said, adding that they will focus on strategic communication, practical cooperation and security dialogue.

On the anti-terrorism issue, Wang said terrorism is a global problem and all countries should work together to solve it.
READ MORE

Don't seek material or money, treat us with respect: Pak Army chief to US

Pakistan is not seeking material or financial help from the US, but Washington must trust and treat it with respect, Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa on Wednesday told the US envoy in Islamabad, a day after President Trump asked Islamabad to stop providing safe havens to terrorists.

While announcing America's new Afghanistan and South Asia policy — which calls for greater US troop deployment and Indian involvement in Afghanistan — Trump had hit out at Pakistan for offering sanctuaries to "agents of chaos."

The US Ambassador David Hale met General Bajwa at the Army's Headquarters in Rawalpindi, where the latter was briefed on the US's new South Asia policy announced by President Trump, according to a statement issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) — the Pakistani military's media wing.

"We can no longer be silent about Pakistan's safe havens for terrorist organisations," the US president had said.
READ MORE

Taliban, IS massacre 50 civilians in rare joint operation: Afghan officials

The Taliban and Islamic State group jointly massacred dozens of civilians in an Afghan village, officials said on Monday highlighting rare co-operation between the insurgents that could increase the strain on Afghanistan's beleaguered security forces.

The fighters killed more than 50 men, women and children in the remote Sayad district of northern Sar-e Pul province on Saturday after overrunning the Afghan Local Police (ALP) - a government-backed militia - in a 48-hour battle, according to local officials.

"It was a joint operation by Daesh (IS) and Taliban fighters. They had recruited forces from other provinces of the country and attacked Mirzawalang village," Zabihullah Amani, a spokesman for the provincial governor, told AFP.

The spokesman alleged that dozens of Taliban and IS group fighters under the command of Sher Mohammad Ghazanfar, a local Taliban commander who Amani claims pledged allegiance to IS, launched a co-ordinated attack on the area on Thursday.

"The fighters overran the area and it led to the massacre of innocent and defenceless civilians," he said.

Most of those killed were shot but some were beheaded, Amani said.

Verifying information from poor, mountainous areas of Afghanistan made inaccessible by fighting and with patchy communications is difficult, and AFP was not able to access the village.
READ MORE

Suicide blast at mosque kills 20, injures 60 others in Afghanistan's Herat

A suicide bomber and a gunman killed at least 29 people and wounded 63 at a packed Shiite mosque in Afghanistan's main western city of Herat on Tuesday night, the latest attack to highlight the country's deteriorating security situation.

The assault on the Jawadya mosque in Herat, which is close to Afghanistan's border with Iran, came a day after the Islamic State group claimed a deadly attack on the Iraqi embassy in Kabul.

The Herat attack was the latest in a series of assaults on Afghanistan's minority Shiite population.

"The death toll has risen to 29 killed and 63 wounded. Some wounded are in a critical condition so the toll may go up," hospital spokesman Rafeeq Shirzai told AFP.

Herat police spokesman Abdul Ahad Walizada said the assault happened around 8:00 pm (local time) when "a terrorist attack was carried out on a (Shiite) mosque in the third security district of Herat city".

"Based on our initial information two terrorists were involved, one of them wearing a suicide vest who detonated himself while the second one was armed with a rifle. They are both dead," he added.
READ MORE

UN urges Australia to stop detaining refugees, shut detention centres

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Monday urged Australia to stop detaining refugees and close down its offshore detention centres in Papua New Guinea and Nauru.

"Four years on, more than 2,000 people are still languishing in unacceptable circumstances. Families have been separated and many have suffered physical and psychological harm," UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi said in a statement.

According to the statement, around 2,500 refugees and asylum-seekers have been forcibly transferred by Australia for offshore processing of their applications in Papua New Guinea and Nauru since the introduction of the current policy in 2013.

Of these, some 1,100 remain in Nauru and 900 in Papua New Guinea, added the statement.

The statement adds that the Australian government informed the UNHCR it will not accept refugees on its territory and offered the options of either letting them be where they are, or transferring them to Cambodia, with whom it signed an agreement in 2014, or the US, with whom it signed an agreement in 2016, to transfer some of the refugees detained in Papua New Guinea and Nauru.

"To avoid prolonging their ordeal, UNHCR has no other choice but to endorse the relocation of all refugees on Papua New Guinea and Nauru to the US, even those with close family members in Australia," the UN High Commissioner said in his statement.

Many of the refugees in these offshore centres have fled strife-torn countries such as Afghanistan, Darfur, Pakistan, Somalia and Syria, and others have escaped discrimination or status as stateless persons such as the Rohingya minorities from Myanmar.
READ MORE

Pentagon claims death of IS leader Abu Sayed in Afghanistan raid

The US forces have killed Abu Sayed, the leader of ISIS-Khorasan, the terror group's Afghanistan affiliate, said a CNN report.

Quoting Chief Pentagon spokesperson Dana White, the CNN report said, "The 'Emir' of ISIS-K was killed in a strike on the group's headquarters in Kunar Province on July 11."

US Navy Captain Bill Salvin, spokesman for US Forces Afghanistan, said Sayed was killed in an airstrike by a US drone. The initial Pentagon statement described Sayed being killed in a "raid".

The CNN reported Secretary of Defence James Mattis as saying that "the death of a leader like Sayed is obviously a victory on our side in terms of setting them back, it's the right direction".

Gen. John Nicholson, Commander, US Forces Afghanistan said in a statement, "This operation is another success in our campaign to defeat ISIS-K in Afghanistan in 2017. Abu Sayed is the third ISIS-K emir we have killed in the last year and we will continue until they are annihilated. There is no safe haven for ISIS-K in Afghanistan."

Hafiz Sayed Khan was killed in July 2016 and another emir Abdul Hasib was killed during a joint US-Afghan commando raid in April.
READ MORE

China to launch 'shuttle diplomacy' between Pakistan and Afghanistan

China on Monday announced that it will launch "shuttle diplomacy" between Pakistan and Afghanistan to ease tensions between the two neighbours and promote the peace process in war-torn Afghanistan amidst a spurt in terror attacks in both the countries.

China will conduct the shuttle diplomacy between Afghanistan and Pakistan, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said during his visit to both the countries, according to Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang.

Wang visited Islamabad and Kabul on June 24 and 25.

During the visit, the two countries agreed to establish the bilateral Crisis Management Mechanism, Geng said.

The main targets for the visit is to implement the consensus between the state leaders and in addition the requirement of Afghanistan and Pakistan as directed by Chinese leaders, he said.

"We will conduct shuttle diplomacy to help improve relations between the two countries within our capacity and also to promote the peace process in Afghanistan," Geng said.

Asked about Afghanistan's allegations that Pakistan is harbouring Taliban militants who were blamed for the recurring terrorist attacks in that country, Geng said "this shuttle visit made by Wang was conducted in agreement with Afghanistani and Pakistani sides".

"During this visit, the two countries have sent out goodwill messages to each other and two sides agreed to establish the bilateral Crisis Management Mechanism.

"We think that this is important step forward towards the improvement of their bilateral relationship and we also stated many times that maintenance of friendly relationships between two countries is conducive to regional stability and security and international efforts against terrorism, we will continue our efforts in this regard," Geng said.
READ MORE

Pentagon to send 4,000 additional US forces to Afghanistan: Report

The Pentagon plans to send almost 4,000 additional United States troops to Afghanistan, according to reports.

The decision to deploy additional troops, some for training and advising Afghan forces and other for counter-terrorism missions, could be announced as soon as next week.

The administration has been considering sending additional troops for some time.

About 8,400 US troops are currently in Afghanistan on a dual mission of training, advising and assisting Afghan troops in their fight against the Taliban and conducting counter-terrorism missions against groups such as the al-Qaeda and the ISIS.

Meanwhile, President Trump has given Secretary of Defense James Mattis full authority to set US troop levels in Afghanistan.

Before the Senate Appropriations Committee on Wednesday, Mattis lauded the decision as a way to make managing the war effort more efficient. "This assures the department can facilitate our missions and nimbly align our commitment to the situation on the ground," he said.

This comes in the backdrop of attacks in Kabul during May this year alone that have killed over 100 people.
READ MORE

Afghan Air Force kills at least 43 Taliban insurgents in Helmand province

At least 43 Taliban insurgents have reportedly been killed in an Afghan Air Force air strike in Helmand province on Wednesday.

Tolo News quoted a Ministry of Interior (MoI) statement, as saying that the air strike took place during the night in Marja district of the province.

"Key Taliban members are also among the dead," the MoI said, adding that a number of weapons belonging to the insurgents were also destroyed.

The Taliban have not yet commented on the air strike.
READ MORE

As violence sweeps Kabul, rapid pace of deportations from Europe continues

Thirty young men were deported to Kabul on June 6, on a Turkish Airlines flight from Istanbul. The deportation comes as Afghanistan is again wracked by violence. Less than a week ago, a bomb in the Afghan capital killed around 150 civilians and injured 500 more. Two days later, on June 2, the police opened fire on a demonstration, killing seven. Another three explosions then cost the lives of at least 22 people. Despite this, the men were being deported – by Norway, Sweden and Turkey.

Those being deported from Turkey were being sent back as part of the EU-Turkey deal, which sees Turkey getting paid to maintain Europe’s frontiers. The men are deported as undocumented migrants, with no chance of having an asylum claim examined, let alone granted. Those being deported from Scandinavia may well have had their claims examined and rejected, though even those who have claims accepted are told Kabul remains safe. One of the officials from Norway told me that he had faith in his system. But given the volatility of the situation, such assertions need to be re-examined. The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, for example, responded to the attacks by suspending all deportations from Germany.

Over the last five months, I have witnessed this process on each of the flights I have taken from Istanbul to Kabul, noting each time the apparent indifference of European escorts and Turkish officials. But this latest flight was particularly shocking given what has just happened.

As I spoke to the young men while boarding, and asked why, in the light of the shocking recent events, the deportations were going ahead, the Turkish police threatened to arrest me. Meanwhile, the Scandinavian escorts pushed me away physically, telling me to leave. But I had a ticket for the same flight.

On the tarmac, the young men were taken off the buses and boarded first. Job accomplished, the Turkish officials engaged in horseplay with each other and took selfies. My seat was at the back of the plane, where some of the young Afghans were seated between their escorts (others were just accompanied to the plane). Taking my seat, I asked the young men in Dari – a Persian language spoken in Afghanistan – whether they had anyone in Kabul. A handful said yes; the others shook their heads.

I asked the escorts, a group of around 15 men and one woman, since Kabul was considered safe, if they would be willing to join me for a drink or dinner on arrival. My invitation was met with silence. Shortly afterwards, the stewardesses came to tell me that they had found a nicer seat for me near the front of the plane. I refused politely and they insisted gently, explaining that it was all police at the back of the plane and they would be noisy.
READ MORE