UNICEF Seeks $22 Million To Aid Afghan Children Affected By Quakes

Ahmad Massoud, leader of the National Resistance Front and son of the late commander, said political infighting only benefits the Taliban.

“The enemy succeeds when opposition groups become preoccupied with fighting one another,” he said. Massoud stressed the importance of a “battle of narratives” against the Taliban, accusing the group of trying to undermine the resistance by fuelling internal rifts.

“We are bound to fight for freedom and we do not accept defeat or surrender,” he said, adding: “No tyranny lasts forever, and the Taliban’s brutality will also come to an end.”

Marshal Abdul Rashid Dostum, leader of the National Islamic Movement of Afghanistan, said in a message: “To die in bed is a disgrace for me.” He vowed to see the Taliban regime overthrown, saying tyranny is short-lived and would eventually bow to the will of the people.

Mohammad Mohaqiq, leader of the People’s Islamic Unity Party of Afghanistan, also criticised the lack of unity among Taliban opponents, urging political factions to accept one another.

Former Vice President Sarwar Danish called for a sustainable solution to Afghanistan’s crisis. He warned that without serious reflection on the future, the post-Taliban era could mirror the chaos that followed the Mujahideen victory and the 2001 Bonn Conference.

Mohammad Omar Daudzai, a former interior minister, said the stature and legitimacy of Ahmad Shah Massoud had only grown stronger with time. He also criticised Taliban activists’ behaviour on social media, accusing them of insulting opponents with harsh language that defies Afghan cultural norms.

The funds would cover a four-month emergency plan to aid 457,000 survivors, the UN said. Indrika Ratwatte, deputy head of the UN mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), urged the international community to demonstrate solidarity.

He added that Afghanistan’s resilience has been “tested time and again” and cautioned that each new crisis risks undoing fragile progress made in recent years.

According to UN figures, the quakes killed more than 2,200 people and directly affected around half a million residents in Kunar, Laghman and Nangarhar provinces. More than 6,700 homes were destroyed or damaged, with most families losing food stocks and sheltering outdoors in unsafe and temporary conditions.

The UN said damage to health facilities, schools and water systems has compounded the humanitarian emergency.

The proposed funding would allow aid agencies to quickly expand operations in remote mountainous areas ahead of winter, delivering shelter, food, water, education and agricultural support to protect lives and livelihoods.

Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Sviatoslav Kaverin was freed after Russian authorities made a formal request to the Taliban. Kaverin had been arrested in July while travelling in Kunduz province for anthropological research. He was accused of smuggling jewellery and later transferred to Taliban intelligence in Kabul.

Kaverin had gone to Afghanistan to study in Kunar, Nuristan, Kapisa and Nangarhar provinces. After his detention, he was unreachable for weeks, prompting concern from his family and colleagues, who said the jewellery found in his luggage was nothing more than souvenirs and gifts.

Reports in mid-August suggested Kaverin was being held in a Kabul detention centre, though no formal charges were filed. After his release, he said he spent 52 days in custody, during which he was moved several times. To pass the time, he exercised with fellow inmates, sang songs and painted the walls of his cell. He said he was beaten during interrogations, though not severely enough to leave visible marks.

His mother had appealed to Rustam Minnikhanov, president of Tatarstan, during a recent conference in the region attended by Taliban representatives.

Russian news agency RIA Novosti first reported his release on 8 September. The following morning, Kaverin posted a photo of himself at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport, writing hours later that he had “finally returned home.”

The directive, sent to the Taliban’s Administrative Affairs Office two weeks ago, disbanded units comprising about 150 staff, sources said. Roughly 120 personnel had been assigned to the Interior Ministry and 30 to the Foreign Ministry under the Interpol structure.

Afghanistan became a member of Interpol on 21 October 2002 during the organisation’s 171st General Assembly in Cameroon. Interpol operations were first established inside the Interior Ministry and later expanded.

In 2010, with international support, the Interpol police unit was upgraded to an independent directorate under the deputy interior minister for security. The unit managed offices at 13 land border crossings and four international airports — Kabul, Mazar-e-Sharif, Herat and Kandahar.

Since the Taliban takeover in 2021, the Interpol directorate has maintained only limited contacts with Iran, Pakistan, Russia and the UAE, sources in the Interior Ministry said. They cited the group’s lack of international recognition as the main reason for curtailed activities.

Under the previous Afghan government, the Interpol directorate provided national institutions with access to Interpol databases and facilitated cooperation with its 193 member states.

Nada Al-Nashif, the UN deputy high commissioner for human rights, told the Human Rights Council that the Taliban’s discriminatory and repressive policies amounted to gender-based persecution. She said bans on education, employment and participation in political, social and civic life had affected “every aspect” of Afghan women’s lives.

Al-Nashif warned that restrictions on women’s medical education were undermining Afghan women’s and girls’ right to health, including reproductive services. She also cited the Taliban’s Virtue and Vice law as a measure that has deepened gender discrimination in families and society.

She urged governments to back independent investigations and prosecutions of human rights violations in Afghanistan, stressing that efforts to ensure accountability must be multi-dimensional.

Al-Nashif said the international community and all UN member states must find effective ways to engage with the Taliban to push the group towards respecting its international obligations.