Afghanistan is on brink of humanitarian disaster with protests on the streets, locals unable to withdraw money and Western aid stopped as Taliban announce first government
Afghanistan is on the precipice of a humanitarian disaster three weeks after the fall of Kabul with furious protesters taking to the streets of the capital and locals unable to withdraw money from banks.
The chaos comes as the Taliban announced a caretaker government, awarding top posts to veteran jihadists as it seeks to bring stability to Afghanistan.
The announcement came amid another day of angry protests on the streets of Kabul, with Taliban fighters firing into the air to disperse crowds demanding rights for women, work and freedom and movement.
Basic services have collapsed since the Taliban took power, people cannot withdraw money from banks and Western aid has been cut off.
The Taliban's chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid held a press conference on Tuesday evening to announce UN-sanctioned Mohammad Hassan Akhund as their new leader.
Taliban co-founder Abdul Ghani Baradar will serve as his deputy; Mullah Yaqub, son of the one-eyed late supreme leader Mullah Omar, was named defence minister; and Sirajuddin Haqqani, wanted by the FBI and the leader of the feared Haqqani network, was named interior minister.
Chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid held a press conference on Tuesday evening to announce UN-sanctioned Mohammad Hassan Akhund as the new leader
A Taliban fighter points an assault rifle at protesters on the streets of Kabul on Tuesday
Afghan demonstrators shout slogans during an anti-Pakistan protest, near the Pakistan embassy in Kabul, on Tuesday
Taliban fighters fire warning shots into the air with assault rifles to disperse protesters in Kabul on Tuesday
Mujahid said that the cabinet was not complete 'it is just acting' and that they aimed 'to take people from other parts of the country.
'The cabinet is not complete, it is just acting,' Mujahid said. 'We will try to take people from other parts of the country.'
The hardline Islamists have been expected to announce a government since the US-led evacuation was completed at the end of August.
They have promised an 'inclusive' government that represents Afghanistan's complex ethnic makeup - though women are unlikely to be included at the top levels.
Amir Khan Muttaqi, a Taliban negotiator in Doha and member of the first regime's cabinet, was named foreign minister.
As they transition from insurgent group to governing power, the Taliban have a series of major issues to address, including looming financial and humanitarian crises.
Today scores of protesters in Kabul chanted the name of Ahmad Massoud, the son of the legendary fighter 'the Lion of Panjshir', as they denounced Pakistani involvement in Afghanistan in defiance of the Taliban.
Today scores of protesters in Kabul chanted the name of Ahmad Massoud, the son of the legendary fighter 'the Lion of Panjshir', as they denounced Pakistani involvement in Afghanistan in defiance of the Taliban
Taliban forces walk in front of Afghan demonstrators as they shout slogans during an anti-Pakistan protest on Tuesday
Taliban forces holding guns try to stop the protesters from moving forward in Kabul on Tuesday
The fighters in response fired their machine guns into the air, some lashing out by striking people - including women - with the butts of their rifles.
The people's bravery in standing up to the jihadists comes as the Taliban still haven't managed to form a government, leaving the country in a chaotic limbo as many people, particularly women, have lost their jobs.
The UN has warned that food stocks could run low by the end of the month as the country braces for an economic meltdown.
Ramiz Alakbarov, the UN's deputy special representative for Afghanistan, said that a third of the population was already going hungry.
'More than half of Afghan children do not know whether they'll have a meal tonight or not,' Alakbarov said at a news briefing last Wednesday. 'That's the reality of the situation we're facing on the ground.'
Two young boys run away from the shooting Taliban militants as hundreds protested in Kabul on Tuesday
Afghanistan's economy is in tatters after the West withdrew funding following the fall of the government last month.
Washington and international institutions such as the World Bank cut off aid, and the Taliban has been unable to access around $9 billion in treasury reserves held in foreign currency overseas.
Prices for essentials such as milk and flour have skyrocketed, sparking fears of runaway inflation.
And then there's the issue of obtaining money in the first place, with most Afghans unable to withdraw cash because banks have been closed and ATMs emptied since the Taliban victory.
The Taliban have repeatedly sought to reassure Afghans and foreign countries that they will not reimpose the brutal rule of their last period in power, when they carried out violent public punishments and barred women and girls from public life.
But more than three weeks after they swept into Kabul, they have yet to announce a government or give details about the social restrictions they will now enforce.
Asked whether the United States would recognise the Taliban, U.S. President Joe Biden told reporters at the White House late Monday: 'That's a long way off.'
Teachers and students at universities in Afghanistan's largest cities - Kabul, Kandahar and Herat - told Reuters that female students were being segregated in class with curtains, taught separately or restricted to certain parts of the campus.
One female student said women sat apart from males in university classes before the Taliban took over, but classrooms were not physically divided.
'Putting up curtains is not acceptable,' Anjila, the 21-year-old student at Kabul University, told Reuters by telephone.
'I really felt terrible when I entered the class ... We are gradually going back to 20 years ago.'
Inside Afghanistan, hundreds of medical facilities are at risk of closure because the Western donors are barred from dealing with the Taliban, a World Health Organization official said.
The WHO is trying fill the gap by providing supplies, equipment and financing to 500 health centres, and was liaising with Qatar for medical deliveries, the UN health agency's regional emergency director, Rick Brennan, told Reuters.
U.S.-led foreign forces evacuated about 124,000 foreigners and at-risk Afghans in the weeks before the last U.S. troops left Kabul, but tens of thousands who fear Taliban retribution were left behind.
About 1,000 people, including Americans, have been stuck in northern Afghanistan for days awaiting clearance for charter flights to leave, an organiser told Reuters, blaming the delay on the U.S. State Department. Reuters could not independently verify the details of the account.
UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore said the agency had registered 300 children who had been separated from their families during the chaotic evacuations from Kabul airport.
'Some of these children were evacuated on flights to Germany, Qatar and other countries ... We expect this number to rise through ongoing identification efforts,' she said in a statement.
Inside Afghanistan, drought and war have forced about 5.5 million people to flee their homes, including more than 550,000 newly displaced in 2021, according to the International Organization for Migration.
Western powers say they are prepared to send humanitarian aid, but broader economic engagement would depend on the make-up of the Islamists' new government in Kabul.
China's ambassador to Afghanistan promised to provide humanitarian aid during a meeting with senior Taliban official Mawlawi Abdul Salam Hanifi in Kabul on Monday, Tolo news reported.
China has not officially recognised the Taliban as Afghanistan's new rulers, but Chinese State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi last month hosted Mullah Baradar, chief of the group's political office, and has said the world should guide the new government rather than pressure it.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin meanwhile met Qatar's ruling emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, as Washington seeks to build a consensus among allies on how to respond to Taliban rule.
Blinken also spoke on Monday with Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Ahmed Nasser Al-Mohammed Al-Sabah, and thanked him for Kuwait's assistance with evacuations, the State Department said.
