The United Nations Development Programme says Turhan Saleh began work as its new representative in Afghanistan on 15 July. He previously served as a senior adviser at UNDP’s Regional Bureau for Arab States.
Saleh has also worked in Ghana and Eritrea and contributed to the development of UNICEF’s first programme for South Africa following the end of apartheid
UNDP is the United Nations’ main development agency and operates in about 170 countries. Its goals include reducing poverty, creating economic opportunities, strengthening public services, preparing for crises and addressing the effects of climate change.
Since the Taliban returned to power, the agency has focused its work in Afghanistan on providing direct assistance to communities and preventing the collapse of local economies.
Its programmes in Afghanistan include creating employment opportunities, providing vocational training, supporting farmers and constructing water canals, greenhouses and small-scale local infrastructure.
For the first time since the Taliban returned to power nearly five years ago, armed opponents briefly seized Yaftali Sufla district in Badakhshan on Friday, local sources said.
The sources told Afghanistan International that the attackers took control of the district administration building, police headquarters and intelligence office for several hours and raised their flag over the district compound.
After taking control, the assailants disarmed Taliban forces, seized military equipment and government vehicles, and then left the area, according to local sources.
Residents said the attackers held the district for several hours.
Local sources said the assault began early on Friday, when between 20 and 25 armed men stormed the Yaftali Sufla district compound. After a brief clash, they took control of the site.
Some sources also claimed that the attackers took several Taliban members with them. Afghanistan International has not independently verified this claim.
No details are currently available about possible casualties.
Local sources said a group calling itself the Patriotic Soldiers Front organised the attack.
Following the assault, the Taliban sent reinforcements from Faizabad, the capital of Badakhshan province, to Yaftali Sufla. Sources said Taliban helicopters were also patrolling over the district and security measures had been tightened.
Yaftali Sufla is located near Faizabad and is regarded as one of Badakhshan’s important and strategically significant districts. Its residents have long played a notable role in the province’s political developments and local power structures.
The incident comes as Badakhshan has become one of Afghanistan’s most unstable provinces in recent months.
Alongside the activities of armed groups opposed to the Taliban, the province has witnessed local tensions, disputes between local Taliban commanders and forces deployed from other provinces, and conflicts over the control of mines and revenue sources, including drug cultivation and trafficking.
Local sources have also reported growing public dissatisfaction with the large presence of Taliban forces from outside Badakhshan, which they say has further complicated the province’s security situation.
Anti-Taliban forces attacked a Taliban district headquarters in Badakhshan’s Yaftali Sufla overnight and disarmed the fighters stationed there, local sources told Afghanistan International.
According to the sources, the anti-Taliban forces also took weapons, ammunition and equipment from the district headquarters.
A resident of Yaftali Sufla told Afghanistan International that Taliban helicopters were patrolling over the district following the incident.
Taliban officials have not yet commented.
The incident comes after senior Taliban officials, including the group’s defence minister and army chief, recently travelled to Badakhshan to assess the security situation.
It remains unclear which group carried out the attack on the Taliban district headquarters.
The Afghanistan Freedom Front and the National Resistance Front are two armed groups opposed to the Taliban and are active in several provinces, including Badakhshan.
Badakhshan has repeatedly witnessed tensions and clashes in recent years over poppy cultivation and the control and extraction of mines, particularly gold and precious stone deposits.
Pakistan says it will not resume normalising relations with the Taliban until militant attacks originating from Afghan territory stop, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Thursday.
Tahir Andrabi, spokesman for Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry, told a news conference that the ice between the two countries has not broken and will not break. He stressed that Islamabad’s position towards the Taliban had not changed.
Andrabi made the remarks in response to a question about the reopening of the Torkham crossing for the transport of United Nations humanitarian aid.
He said facilitating the passage of relief supplies was a humanitarian measure and should not be interpreted as a sign of improving political relations with the Taliban.
The Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman said relations would remain frozen until Taliban-controlled Afghanistan stopped supporting terrorism in Pakistan.
He added that the Taliban must provide written and verifiable guarantees that Afghan territory would not be used to plan, organise, finance or carry out attacks against Pakistan.
Andrabi said verbal assurances from Taliban officials that Afghan territory would not be used against other countries were insufficient for Islamabad.
He stressed that any progress in relations depended on practical measures, formal guarantees and monitoring mechanisms.
Security Deadlock Between Kabul and Islamabad
Relations between Pakistan and the Taliban have become increasingly tense in recent months because of a rise in attacks by the Pakistani Taliban inside Pakistan.
Islamabad has repeatedly accused the Taliban of allowing members of the Pakistani Taliban to operate from Afghan territory. The Taliban have rejected the allegation and say they will not allow Afghan soil to be used against any other country.
However, the increase in attacks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan has prompted Pakistan to demand specific and enforceable guarantees from the Taliban and to make any improvement in relations conditional on security measures by Kabul.
UNAMA’s Security Council-mandated priorities will continue under its new chief, including aid coordination, political engagement, mediation, human rights monitoring and reporting on women’s rights.
Following the appointment of a new UNAMA chief, UN Secretary-General spokesman Stéphane Dujarric told Afghanistan International that the mission’s priorities, as set by the Security Council, would remain unchanged.
Dujarric said on Thursday, 16 July that the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan would continue its work on human rights monitoring and reporting in line with the mandate assigned by the UN Security Council.
He added that no date had yet been set for Rabab Fatima to begin her role as the UN secretary-general’s special representative for Afghanistan and head of UNAMA.
According to Dujarric, the start of her assignment depends on the completion of her current responsibilities as a UN under-secretary-general in New York.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres appointed Fatima, a senior and experienced Bangladeshi diplomat, as his special representative for Afghanistan.
Dujarric told Afghanistan International that UNAMA’s renewed mandate also includes a strategic review that must be completed and submitted to the Security Council by March 2027.
He said such strategic reviews within the United Nations are conducted under the direction of the secretary-general’s office.
Fatima previously served as UN under-secretary-general for the least developed countries. Before that, she was Bangladesh’s ambassador and permanent representative to the United Nations in New York.
The veteran diplomat holds a master’s degree in international relations and diplomacy from Tufts University in the United States.
The UN Security Council extended UNAMA’s mandate for another year on 15 June. The China-sponsored resolution was adopted unanimously with 15 votes.
Taliban Vice and Virtue Minister Khalid Hanafi say the group will not retreat from enforcing Sharia because of negative publicity and claims human rights in Afghanistan are protected under “Islamic principles”.
Hanafi made the remarks during a visit to western provinces, where he met religious scholars, tribal elders and local officials.
Referring to criticism of restrictions imposed on women, he said some countries remained silent over the killing of women and children elsewhere in the world but objected to measures such as compulsory hijab in Afghanistan.
During an earlier visit to Herat, Hanafi also defended recent arrests, saying they targeted people who, in his words, were promoting immodest dress.
The Taliban minister also criticised international views on human rights, saying global advocates did not properly understand its definition. He claimed human rights in Afghanistan were being upheld in accordance with “Islamic principles”.
He urged media outlets to first apply the Taliban’s vice and virtue law to themselves before conveying it to the public, adding that the media could currently serve as a pulpit.
The remarks come as the Taliban appear to be seeking support from religious scholars and influential local figures to prevent public resistance to the continuing arrests.
In recent weeks, Taliban vice and virtue officers in Herat have launched an operation to detain women accused of failing to observe the group’s required dress code.