Afghanistan

The Taliban’s reclusive supreme leader ruled out any compromise Wednesday on his hardline Islamic governance in Afghanistan despite persistent global criticism and calls for him to end sweeping restrictions on women.

The United Nations has warned that delivering life-saving aid to millions of people in Afghanistan could be “severely impeded” as donors have given only 6% of the humanitarian funding appeal for 2024.

Russia said on Tuesday it had important matters to discuss with Afghanistan's Taliban leaders and was working to remove the Taliban from its list of banned terrorist organisations.

Afghanistan's Taliban rulers have issued a stark condemnation of the March 22 attack on a Moscow concert venue that left at least 115 dead and wounded more than 100 others. … IS has staged frequent attacks in Afghanistan since the return of the Taliban to power in 2021. On March 21, IS claimed an attack that killed 19 Taliban employees outside a bank in Kandahar.

[…] Unanimously adopting resolution 2727 (2024), the Council stressed the importance of the continued presence of UNAMA and other UN agencies, funds and programmes across Afghanistan.

The UN envoy for Afghanistan on Wednesday repeated her call for the Taliban to reverse its numerous restrictions on the lives of women and girls in violation of their human rights, warning that the longer they remain in place, the more damage will be done.

A revival of Taliban-ordered public executions by gunfire taking place in sports stadiums in several cities in Afghanistan “must cease immediately”, the UN human rights office (OHCHR) said on Wednesday.

United Nations experts on discrimination against women and girls have called on the international community to formally recognize "gender apartheid" as a crime against humanity.

A United Nations-led international conference ended Monday with consensus on the goals Taliban rulers must meet but little progress on how the world should coordinate engagement with the unrecognized government.

 The World Bank Group said on Thursday its executive board endorsed a new approach to aiding Afghanistan that will deploy some $300 million from the bank's International Development Association fund for poor countries through United Nations agencies and other international organizations.