The Situation in Afghanistan: An Overview

Infographic comparing Taliban control on July 9th and August 16th

On the 15th of August, the Taliban officially took control of Afghanistan, flooding into Kabul and facing no resistance as President Ashraf Ghani fled the nation. The government dissolved, and confusion and fear engulfed the city, with tens of thousands of people attempting to flee.

Despite years and hundreds of billions of dollars spent by the US to build up the Afghan government and defense forces, the Taliban returned to power two decades after they were defeated. The Taliban swept over dozens of cities in a matter of days, leaving Kabul as the last major stronghold of government rule.

Fearing Taliban control, people have been fleeing the country at all costs, even clinging to planes as they take off.

According to a White House official, the US has evacuated roughly 3,000 more people from Afghanistan's Kabul airport, increasing the total number of US evacuations to almost 9,000 since August 14.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) spokesperson, Shabia Mantoo, has welcomed the evacuation of Afghan nationals through discrete bilateral programs, but has underlined that they should not be used in place of a "urgent and broader international humanitarian response."

As Taliban forces have triumphed across the country in recent weeks, it has felt as if the pretense of moderation has been abandoned, with alarming reports of school closures, mobility restrictions, and women being forced to leave their jobs. The Taliban spokesman has continued to assert that women's rights are respected, but his comments are more false than ever.

Bibliography

Barr, H. (2021, August 17) The Fragility of Women’s Rights in Afghanistan. Human Rights Watch. https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/08/17/fragility-womens-rights-afghanistan

BBC (2021) Taliban Control of Afghanistan. [Photograph] BBC. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-58239156

Kohsar, W. (2021) One day after the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan, thousands of people who were desperate to flee the country rushed to the airport in Kabul. [Photograph] The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/16/world/asia/afghanistan-airport-evacuation-us-withdrawal.html

N.A. (2021) 20-Year U.S. War Ending as It Began, With Taliban Ruling Afghanistan. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/08/15/world/taliban-afghanistan-news