The European Union said on Monday, 31 August, that it has allocated €15 million in partnership with the World Food Programme to strengthen livelihoods and improve the resilience of people in Afghanistan.
In a social media post, the EU said the funding would be used to expand economic opportunities, particularly for women and young people, and help communities cope with economic and climate-related crises.
The EU said creating economic opportunities for women and young people was essential to strengthening the resilience of communities across Afghanistan.
Afghanistan continues to face a severe hunger and malnutrition crisis. The World Food Programme says around 13.8 million people in the country are experiencing acute food insecurity, while nearly five million women and children will require treatment for malnutrition in 2026.
In recent weeks, the WFP has also warned that child malnutrition in Afghanistan has reached critical levels and that funding shortages are limiting access to food assistance and treatment for many children and mothers in need.
The crisis continues as cuts in humanitarian assistance, poverty, unemployment, rising food prices and the return of millions of migrants place additional pressure on Afghan families.
Pakistani media report that the prolonged closure of crossings with Afghanistan has hurt Pakistan’s trade, agriculture, poultry industry and exports, while leaving large numbers of people on both sides of the border without work.
Dawn reported on Monday that the closure of the Torkham and Chaman crossings over the past 10 to 11 months has placed traders under severe financial and psychological pressure.
Pakistan Has Lost Nearly $1 Billion in Exports
Zia-ul-Haq Sarhadi, senior vice-president of the Pakistan-Afghanistan Joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said Pakistan used to export goods worth about $1.5 billion annually to Afghanistan.
According to him, Pakistani traders have lost nearly $1 billion from this sector over the past 10 months.
He said Afghanistan had been one of the closest and most important markets for Pakistani products, with Afghan buyers usually paying for their orders before the goods were dispatched.
Pakistan also exported goods worth about $800 million annually to Central Asian countries through Afghanistan. Sarhadi said the closure of the transit route over the past 10 months had cost Pakistani exporters about $225 million.
Pakistan also imported cotton, pulses and other goods from Central Asia through Afghanistan at lower cost. The suspension of this route has increased the cost of importing these products.
Afghanistan Has Also Lost Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
According to Dawn, Afghanistan’s annual exports to India through the Wagah crossing were worth about $300 million.
Sarhadi said the suspension of this route over the past 10 months had cost Afghan exporters nearly $200 million.
He also said the halt in Afghanistan-Pakistan trade had left millions of people directly and indirectly without work, while Pakistan’s treasury had lost billions of rupees in customs and tax revenue.
Stranded Containers Have Cost $1.2 Million a Day
Around 40,000 to 45,000 containers carrying Afghan goods used to pass through Karachi’s ports each year. Transport, insurance, port services, customs clearance and other services cost an average of about $4,000 per container.
Pakistan earned about $160 million annually from this activity. Sarhadi estimated that the suspension of these operations had cost Pakistan about $106 million.
Dawn reported that from October 2025 to April 2026, around 10,000 Afghan transit containers were stranded in Pakistan. A daily detention charge of about $120 was imposed on each container.
By this calculation, Afghan importers paid around $1.2 million in additional charges every day.
Pakistan’s Poultry Industry Faces Oversupply
Pakistan’s Business Recorder also reported that before the border closure, around 20 per cent of Pakistan’s poultry production was exported to Afghanistan. The suspension of these exports has left the domestic market with excess supply.
Imran Khan, an executive member of the Pakistan Poultry Association, said producing one kilogram of chicken costs around 290 rupees, while producers are selling it for about 250 rupees, resulting in a loss of roughly 40 rupees per kilogram.
Industry representatives say Pakistan’s poultry sector is now facing an oversupply of about 20 per cent. They have described the current situation as the worst crisis facing the industry and called for exports to Afghanistan to resume.
Afghan Market Closed to Pakistani Agricultural Products
In a separate report, Dawn said Afghanistan had traditionally been an important market for Pakistani sugar, rice and maize. The border closure has made it more difficult to sell surpluses of these products and increased pressure on Pakistani farmers.
Pakistan’s rice exports fell from $3.35 billion in the 2025 financial year to $2.29 billion in the 2026 financial year. The decline came amid high production costs, difficulties accessing global markets and the closure of the Afghan market.
Pakistan’s sugar industry has also called for permission to export 600,000 tons of surplus sugar. Farmers are concerned that keeping this volume in the domestic market could push down sugarcane prices in the next season.
Maize producers are also facing high inventories and difficulties exporting their products.
Pakistan’s Transit Route Has Lost Ground
Customs figures show that Afghan goods transiting through Pakistan reached 102,886 containers worth $6.7 billion in the 2023 financial year.
The figure fell to 54,114 containers in 2024 and 42,959 in 2025. In the 2026 financial year, only 11,592 containers worth $367 million passed through the route.
Afghan exports to other countries through Pakistan also fell sharply, from $454 million in the 2025 financial year to just $7 million in 2026.
Dawn reported that Afghanistan has meanwhile shifted part of its trade towards Iran and Central Asian countries. Citing World Bank data, the newspaper said direct imports from Iran and goods entering through Iran together accounted for 48.6 per cent of Afghanistan’s total imports.
In an editorial on Monday, Dawn said the Asian Development Bank had approved a $400 million package to modernise regional border crossings but warned that infrastructure upgrades alone would not revive trade without open borders and stable relations.
The newspaper said that while Pakistan is investing in becoming a regional trade corridor, its economic links with surrounding markets remain weak because of the closure of the Afghan border, limited trade with Iran and the suspension of most trade with India.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit opened in Bishkek on Monday, 31 August, with Afghanistan-related concerns over security, terrorism and drug trafficking expected to feature. The Taliban was again not invited.
Afghanistan has held formal observer status in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation since 2012, but the Taliban has not attended any of the organisation’s annual leaders’ summits since returning to power.
The main summit of SCO leaders will take place on Tuesday. On the first day, member states are mainly holding bilateral and multilateral meetings.
Leaders attending include Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, alongside the leaders of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Belarus.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan are also attending. Turkiye is not a full SCO member and holds the status of a dialogue partner.
Several bilateral meetings have been scheduled on the sidelines, including talks between Putin and the leaders of China, India, Iran and Turkiye. Economic and trade cooperation, energy, transport and regional connectivity are also expected to be discussed alongside security issues.
At the end of the summit, leaders are expected to adopt the Bishkek Declaration marking the 25th anniversary of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and Kyrgyzstan will hand over the organisation’s rotating presidency to Pakistan.
Concerns over the activities of terrorist groups, particularly Islamic State, in Afghanistan have long featured in SCO discussions.
Member states, especially Afghanistan’s neighbours, view the activities of terrorist groups in the country as a threat to regional security, and the issue is expected to be raised as part of the summit’s security discussions.
Afghanistan’s security was also discussed at an SCO foreign ministers’ meeting on 24 July. Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar described terrorism originating from Afghanistan as one of his country’s most serious security challenges, while Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi called for a stable Afghanistan free of terrorism. The Taliban administration was also not represented at that meeting.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation was established in 2001 and now has 10 full members. China and Russia have increasingly used the organisation to promote a multipolar vision of the international system, although the SCO officially says it is not an alliance directed against other countries.
Nearly two weeks after Juma Khan Fateh, a Taliban dissident commander, surrendered and one phase of tensions in Badakhshan ended, the province is entering a new period of deeper internal Taliban divisions and defiance of orders from Kandahar.
As Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada appoints a new governor and police chief to contain the unrest, evidence suggests the list of dissatisfied local Taliban figures in Badakhshan is growing.
The Taliban leadership’s “monopolistic” policies, the marginalisation of Tajik and Badakhshani figures, and what critics describe as the unchecked looting of gold mines by outsiders have pushed some younger Taliban commanders in the province to the limit.
Discontent among Badakhshani Taliban members initially emerged through sharp criticism on social media. It later developed into open armed confrontation after Mahfuzullah, the former intelligence chief in Baharak, attacked the intelligence directorate and Juma Khan Fateh subsequently clashed with Taliban forces in Nusay district in August.
Recent investigations by Afghanistan International, along with interviews with several dissenting commanders in Jurm and Warduj districts, regarded as major strongholds of Badakhshani Taliban members, reveal new dimensions of the crisis.
On 25 August, Hibatullah appointed Rahmatullah Najib as governor of Badakhshan and Ahmad Shah Dindost as the provincial police chief.
Critics say the appointment of Pashtun officials and figures close to Hibatullah to key posts in Badakhshan has further marginalised local Taliban members. Sources say even the latest provincial reshuffle has failed to ease tensions because the most important positions remain in the hands of figures trusted by Kandahar, while local Taliban members are given largely symbolic roles.
Dissenting commanders say the deliberate exclusion of Tajik figures and the allocation of Badakhshan’s gold reserves to companies from Kandahar and Helmand have not only pushed them away from the governing structure but also seriously weakened their standing among local communities.
One of the first figures to openly oppose the Taliban’s Pashtun governor around three years ago was Salahuddin Salar, deputy head of intelligence at the Taliban Defence Ministry.
Over time, the protests widened. Juma Khan Fateh eventually entered armed clashes with Taliban forces and killed several fighters from Kandahar and Helmand. He later surrendered to Qari Fasihuddin and is now in Kabul awaiting trial before a military court. The outcome of the case could influence the direction of the wider unrest.
The Taliban has launched an extensive campaign to gather complaints and evidence against Fateh, apparently seeking to build a serious case against the dissident commander.
Salahuddin Salar
Salahuddin Salar, a resident of the Khastak area of Jurm district, has repeatedly criticised Taliban leadership policies on Facebook and has even described pledging allegiance to an “unseen emir” as a mistake.
Sources say his close relationship with Qari Fasihuddin has so far protected him from direct prosecution. However, Salar’s continued criticism and the Taliban’s silence have led some local Taliban members to speculate that he may have connections with the group’s intelligence apparatus and leadership.
Sayad Khastaki
Sayad Khastaki, a Taliban police recruitment commander in Badakhshan, is another figure who has criticised the group’s policies.
Following the clashes involving Juma Khan Fateh, he wrote: “The blood of our mujahideen had one value before the victory, but now they kill us and brand us as rebels.”
Khastaki was arrested several months ago by the Taliban police chief and removed from his post. Sources say, however, that he later returned to work and resumed his duties despite orders from Badakhshan police officials.
Qari Mahfuz
Qari Mahfuz, the former intelligence chief of Baharak district and a figure close to Helmand Governor Amanuddin Mansoor, became involved in a verbal dispute with Pashtun Taliban members in Faizabad.
On 1 August, he attacked the Taliban intelligence directorate with a PK machine gun before fleeing the area. Sources say he has since been dismissed from his position.
Mahfuzullah Qutiba
Mahfuzullah Qutiba, a resident of Jurm district, has also expressed dissatisfaction with Taliban leadership policies, particularly those concerning Badakhshan, and has occasionally voiced his criticism on Facebook.
After Abdul Matin Rahimzai, the Pashtun head of Badakhshan’s mines department and an ally of the Taliban leader, was dismissed, Qutiba posted a photograph of him and wrote that some people come to Badakhshan claiming they want to serve and develop the province, but instead “play the role of thieves and then flee”.
Discontent within the ranks of the Badakhshani Taliban is not limited to a handful of figures. The protests are gradually spreading to a broader group of local commanders.
Figures including Dr Ibrahim Baharaki and Jahan Khan Noori, the Taliban police chief of Yaftal district, have also repeatedly voiced objections to the central leadership’s policies at public gatherings.
Their main grievances include the exclusion of Badakhshani Taliban members from decision-making in the province, the large presence of non-local forces, and the extraction and alleged looting of Badakhshan’s gold reserves by companies from Kandahar and Helmand, a process they believe is transferring the province’s wealth outside Badakhshan.
Available findings suggest that many of the commanders now at the forefront of opposition to Kandahar’s policies are close to, or under the influence of, Qari Fasihuddin, the Taliban army chief of staff, and Mawlawi Amanuddin, the governor of Helmand.
Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi told the Financial Times that he would fully welcome US investment in Afghanistan, including in mining, infrastructure, agriculture and trade.
The Financial Times reported on Monday, 31 August, that the Taliban hopes such proposals and diplomatic efforts could help pave the way for the lifting of international sanctions and the release of frozen Afghan assets.
Muttaqi told the British newspaper: “Relations between Afghanistan and the United States should not be assessed through the lens of the past 20 years of war, but rather on the basis of future co-operation, Our economic policy is open.”
However, he did not say whether the proposal had been presented directly to the White House.
Geological assessments conducted by the United States and the former Afghan government indicate that Afghanistan has untapped mineral reserves worth at least $1 trillion, including copper, iron ore, niobium, cobalt, gold and lithium.
Since returning to power in 2021, the Taliban has signed mining contracts worth more than $7 billion, including for gold, precious stones and chromite, with countries such as China and Iran.
UN experts have warned that any move to normalise relations with the Taliban should not take place without tangible progress on human rights, particularly the rights of women and girls.
Criticising sanctions, Muttaqi said they had failed to achieve their objectives. He added: “No individual, government or institution should use the assets of the Afghan people as a tool of political pressure.”
US President Donald Trump has so far shown little willingness to establish relations with the Taliban and has previously called for the return of Bagram Air Base, a demand rejected by Muttaqi, who said all military and civilian facilities were national assets of Afghanistan.
The Taliban foreign minister also urged Washington to reopen its embassy in Kabul, saying security at the site had been ensured.
In a separate interview with Japan’s Kyodo News, he also called on Washington to abandon what he described as a confrontational approach towards the Taliban administration.
Muttaqi said the Taliban administration wants to normalise relations with the United States.
Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi says the group’s government wants to normalise relations with the United States and has urged Washington to abandon what he described as a confrontational approach towards the Taliban.
He said the two sides could shape their relationship based on mutual respect and shared interests.
In the interview with Japan’s Kyodo News, published on Saturday, 29 August, Muttaqi said the Taliban was currently seeking to expand relations with other countries and regarded formal recognition of its government as the next issue, rather than an immediate priority.
He urged the United States to reconsider its policy towards Afghanistan considering what he described as the reality of Taliban rule.
Russia remains the only country to have formally recognised the Taliban government. Western countries say the ban on girls’ education, restrictions on women’s employment and other human rights violations remain major obstacles to normalising relations with the Taliban.
Regional countries have also expanded contacts and cooperation with the Taliban without formally recognising its government. However, the Taliban has strengthened diplomatic ties with several of them and taken control of some Afghan embassies and consulates.
Asked about the future of girls’ education, Muttaqi did not provide a specific timetable for their return to secondary schools or universities.
In another part of the interview, Muttaqi described Afghanistan’s relations with Japan as historic and close and urged the Japanese government to facilitate the reopening of the Afghan embassy in Tokyo. He said the embassy suspended operations in February following a dispute over the acceptance of new Taliban diplomats.
The Taliban foreign minister has previously also called on the United States, in an interview with The New York Times, to invest in Afghanistan’s mines, dams and roads.
Explanation of Military Cooperation With Russia
Muttaqi said an agreement on military and technical cooperation signed between the Taliban and Russia in June was intended to support the repair and maintenance of Russian-made weapons.
He stressed that the cooperation was not directed against any specific country.
Asked about Russia’s war in Ukraine, Muttaqi declined to comment.
In another part of the interview, the Taliban foreign minister said the group’s government supported dialogue to resolve its disputes with Pakistan.