Armed Men Beat Up Enikass TV Reporter in Jalalabad City

In its latest report on Afghanistan, UNODC has warned that opium prices have soared following the announcement of the cultivation ban in April 2022.

Opium cultivation in Afghanistan – latest findings and emerging threats, is the first report on the illicit opium trade since the Taliban’s return to power in August 2021. The survey results reflect the situation of the opium crop season 2022, which started with the sowing of poppy seeds in most parts of the country in late October and November 2021 and ended with the harvest in April to July 2022. It thus presents the results of the first cropping season after the takeover of the Taliban in August 2021 and reflects planting decisions made by farmers before the de-facto authorities announced a ban on all illicit drug cultivation, manufacture, and trafficking in April 2022.

It also stated that the income made by farmers from opium sales tripled from USD 425 million in 2021 to USD1.4 billion in 2022 - the equivalent of 29% of the 2021 agricultural sector value.

“Afghan farmers are trapped in the illicit opiate economy, while seizure events around Afghanistan suggest that opiate trafficking continues unabated,” said UNODC Executive Director Ghada Waly, launching the new survey. “The international community must work to address the acute needs of the Afghan people, and to step up responses to stop the criminal groups trafficking heroin and harming people in countries around the world,” Waly added.

The report stated that Cultivation continued to be concentrated in the southwestern parts of the country, which accounted for 73 per cent of the total area and registering the largest crop increase. In Helmand province, one-fifth of all arable land was dedicated to opium poppy cultivation.

The report has emphasised that seizures of opiates around Afghanistan indicate that trafficking of Afghan opium and heroin has not stopped. Afghan opiates supply some 80 per cent of all opiate users in the world.

It has warned that most of the 2023 opium crop must be sowed by early November and farmers will take decisions on whether and how much opium poppy to plant amid severe economic disruption and humanitarian crisis, continued high prices for opium and uncertainty about how the de facto authorities will enforce the cultivation ban.

The Taliban has been accused of detaining their opponents under false pretexts in various provinces of Afghanistan. The group has also been accused of not respecting the prisoners' rights.

In a report released in July, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) confirmed the torture, arrest, and killing of dozens of people by the Taliban over 11 months since their takeover in 2021.

Even global rights watchdogs, like Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International, have expressed deep concerns over the torture and arbitrary arrests of civilians. HRW in a statement had said that the Taliban tortured civilians and in some cases the detainees lost their lives due to the torture.

Amnesty International too has published accounts of arbitrary arrest of journalists and former Afghan soldiers under false pretexts.

The foreign minister of the Taliban stressed that the crackdowns indicated the "favour of God, the cooperation of the nation, and the sacrifice of the young" members of the Taliban.

The Taliban foreign minister reacted to the formation of new political groups outside Afghanistan too. He accused these groups of being servants of foreign elements in return for financial support.

Many Afghan politicians have announced the formation of new political coalitions in recent weeks.

Among others, Afghanistan Justice and Freedom party, led by former vice-president, Sarwar Danesh, has announced to work towards establishing a federal system in Afghanistan.

Earlier, Afghanistan National Movement for Peace and Justice announced its formation with the leadership of former foreign minister, Mohammad Hanif Atmar, and Mohammad Masoom Stanekzai, the former chief peace negotiator of Afghanistan with the Taliban.

Muttaqi clearly pointed out to the new groups and said, "Serving others was not useful before and will not be useful now."

He called on Afghan politicians to return to Afghanistan and live under the Taliban regime which he called “the shadow of honour and dignity".

After the fall of the previous government in 2021, Afghanistan’s banking system remained in a crisis. The United States froze around nine billion dollars in foreign currency reserves of the Central Bank of Afghanistan, due to the Taliban’s takeover of the country.

However, American and Taliban officials have held many rounds of negotiations in Qatar to release these frozen funds.

Coupled with other developments, in recent months, the Central Bank, under the control of the Taliban, has announced receiving at least a 40-million-dollar aid package every week.

During their phone call, Abdullah and West considered the reopening of girls' schools as a necessity and the desire of Afghans and stressed that intra-Afghan dialogue is needed to resolve the problems and ensure national stability in Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, the US special representative for Afghanistan, in a conversation with former president Hamid Karzai on Thursday, also emphasised that real talks must be initiated among Afghans about the future of Afghanistan.

The United States and some European countries and political figures have repeatedly urged the Taliban to negotiate with other parties inside Afghanistan and form an inclusive government based on the Doha Agreement. However, the Taliban clearly have not responded to such international demands.