Russia Will Share Outcomes of Moscow Consultative Format With Taliban

Officials of the YouTube channel told Afghanistan International that the Taliban searched the network's office without providing any reason and arrested four female and two male employees of the channel and transferred them to a security office in district 3 of Kabul.

The recent arrests of Afghan Youtubers take place as earlier this week, the Taliban had detained five employees of another YouTube channel in Uruzgan province.

During the search operations, the Taliban treated the YouTube channel’s employees harshly.

Taliban officials have not reacted to the reports of the arrest of the YouTubers yet.

Affiliated members of the YouTube channel said that they have an official license from the Taliban and that the channel doesn’t produce any political programmes and is solely focused on the production of cultural and historical video content.

Officials of the YouTube channel also emphasised that the female employees of the channel observe the hijab required by the Taliban.

According to the latest assessment of the WFP, nine out of 10 Afghan families are unable to meet their food needs.

According to the WFP, Afghans have experienced unprecedented economic challenges and natural disasters, such as earthquakes and floods, in the past year.

The United Nations had previously announced that the people of Afghanistan will face a difficult winter this year.

After the takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban, Afghan citizens have faced mass unemployment and have been facing serious economic crises.

Among others, former government employees have been fired and replaced by Taliban members.

Muttaqi had addressed Taliban members, while paying a visit to Mullah Omar’s grave in Zabul Province, but the Taliban spokesperson, Zabihullah Mujahid, published them on Wednesday.

The Taliban’s foreign minister also said that Mullah Omar had urged that the US and its allies should be defeated and the Taliban members delivered on that promise.

Muttaqi added that although Mullah Omar was hiding in one corner of Afghanistan, his orders had been "obeyed" throughout the country.

Taliban officials had announced earlier this week that the body of Mullah Omar, the former leader of this group, was buried in Sewri district of Zabul province.

The Taliban did not say when his body was buried in the district, but the previous government of Afghanistan had announced that Mullah Omar had died in Pakistan.

DABS didn’t provide further details about when the power outage will start.

DABS, however, stressed that based on officials of Uzbekistan, the adjustments and changes are temporary and will be completed soon.

In August this year, Afghanistan settled its multimillion-dollar outstanding debts owed to Uzbekistan for electric power supplies. It had owed Uzbekistan for the 2,151.3 kilowatt hours of electricity supplied in 2021.

However, Tajikistan is still waiting for its payments. In July Tajikistan received $2 million from Afghanistan toward the debt, which now stands at over $28 million.

Afghanistan imports over 80 percent of its electricity, at an annual cost of some $220 million, according to the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), a watchdog created by the U.S. Congress. In Afghanistan, only 22% of the 1,600 megawatts used each year are produced nationally, while the rest is imported from neighbouring countries.

Uzbekistan is its biggest electricity supplier. This year, around half of Afghanistan’s imported power is coming from Uzbekistan, and most of the rest from Tajikistan.

Both have long-duration electricity supply agreements signed before the Taliban returned to power, which are adjusted annually. The Afghans are contracted to pay Uzbekistan $100 million and Tajikistan $69 million for the power supplies.

Any halt to electricity supplies from Central Asia risks leaving over 10 million Afghans in the dark, the United Nations Development Program, or UNDP, has previously warned.

No further details of the export of goods and products have been provided. However, carpets, dried and fresh fruits, vegetables, coal, medicinal plants and semi-precious stones are the main exported goods.

The economic deputy of the Taliban’s Prime Minister’s Office said that if this exporting process continues until the end of this solar year, the number of Afghanistan’s exports will reach two billion dollars. This is despite the fact that from the beginning to the end of the solar year 1400, goods worth 850 million dollars were exported from Afghanistan to other countries.

Earlier, the US Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) previously reported the surge in Afghanistan’s exports to Pakistan on November 4, in a report. According to the SIGAR report, Afghanistan exported 796 million dollars to Pakistan between 2021 and 2022.