As reported on 12 March 2025: Across the country, 18 health facilities supported by Save the Children and its partner have been forced to close due to the loss of funding. Only 14 Save the Children clinics have enough funding to remain open for one month, and without new financial support, they will be forced to close. This comes after an executive order was signed, suspending US foreign aid for three months. Sources: Save the Children and TOLO. Return to Afghanistan home page.

02 December 2024: In Kabul city, the Taliban’s Ministry of Public Health, under the supreme leader’s directive, ordered the closure of all public and private medical institutions for female education, halting enrolment and teaching in midwifery, dentistry, nursing, and laboratory sciences. This comes after more than three years of a ban on girls attending school and university. Sources: Amu Tv, HRW, Scholars at Risk Network. Return to Afghanistan home page.

20 July 2024: In Pol-e-Sorkh neighbourhood, Kabul city, the head of the economics faculty at Aburayhan University, was detained by Taliban intelligence. Photos show the lecturer had been beaten. He was threatened with arrest by the Taliban in the past on accusations of speaking to foreign media. Source: Kabul Now. Return to Afghanistan home page.

As reported on 15 July 2024: In Wardara village, Farah Mobl area, Charakh Falak valley, Baghlan province, a 12-year-girl was kidnapped by Taliban soldiers after assaulting her mother. Four months later, the Taliban went to inform the mother that her daughter was alive and married to a Taliban soldier. Source: Hasht-e Subh. Return to Afghanistan home page.

As reported on 08 April 2024: In Dasht-e Qargh village, Fayzabad district, Badakhshan province, a 17-year-old girl was sexually assaulted by an official of the Taliban-affiliated jihad school. The perpetrator was arrested by Taliban intelligence officers. Source: Hasht-E Subh. Return to Afghanistan home page.

21 February 2024: In Qol-e Ardu locality, Herat province, the director of a Roshan Zamiran Private School was attacked and shot dead when unidentified assailants attacked the school. Two armed men reportedly assaulted some staff members.* Source: Hasht-E Subh Daily. Return to Afghanistan home page.

01-12 February 2024: Across all provinces, humanitarian access was impeded on 101 reported occasions, 90% of which were authored by de-facto authorities and armed forces, resulting in the temporary suspension of 37 programmes. Source: OCHA. Return to Afghanistan home page.

28 January 2024: In Kabul province, a Hazara woman was detained and sexually assaulted by Taliban forces. Source: Personal Communication. Return to Afghanistan home page.

As reported on 25 November 2023: In the Sarak-e Char area, Taloqan city, Takhar province, Taliban forces apprehended a human rights activist and UNDP-affiliated health educator. She was reported to be mistreated during her arrest. Source: Hasht-e-Subh. Return to Afghanistan home page.

As reported on 10 August 2023: In Kabul, following a two-year suspension of operations, IOM resumed its activities at the Kabul International Airport, where it registers and supports immigrants who return to the country in a legal manner. Source: Tolo News. Return to Afghanistan home page.

As reported on 27 July 2023: In Taloqan city, Takhar province, two women were raped within the police compound by the Taliban Chief of Police. Source: Personal Communication. Return to Afghanistan home page.

18 July 2023: In Khosh Gate area, Herat city, Herat province, a nurse in the Herat Provincial Hospital was beheaded after unnamed individuals broke into her house. It is unclear what the motives behind the attack were however it is the second murder of a female healthcare worker in the past three months. Source: Hasht-e-Subh. Return to Afghanistan home page.

As reported on 01 April 2023: In an undisclosed location, Taliban police detained three British nationals, including a 53-year-old male NGO doctor, and the manager of a Kabul hotel for aid workers, since last January. Sources: Daily Mail and RFI

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29 March 2023: In the Jar-e Quduq area, Qush Tepa district, Jowzjan province, two students were killed and 11 wounded when a grenade exploded inside a classroom in an elementary school. The children found the grenade in school and played with it before it exploded. Some locals claimed the Taliban organised the explosion to target schools where girls were still allowed to study. Source: Kabul Now

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03 February 2021: In PD6, Jalalabad city, Nangarhar province, a school principal was shot dead by gunmen in a suspected targeted attack. Sources: Xinhua

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24 December 2022: The Taliban Ministry of the Economy decreed that female employees are no longer legally allowed to work for national or international NGOs, claiming that some female staff had not followed the prescribed dress code for women appearing in public in accordance with the Taliban’s interpretation of Sharia Law. The Taliban further threatened to revoke the licence ofNGOs found not to be compliant with the order. In response, on 25 December, four INGOs (CARE, the International Rescue Committee – which employs more than 3,000 women in Afghanistan – the Norwegian Refugee Council, and Save the Children) providing health, education, child protection, and nutrition services, suspended their operations across the country, explaining that they cannot operate without their female staff. Source: NBC I and NBC II

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29 November 2022: In Nangarhar province, the head of Pharmacists Associations was arrested and severely tortured by Taliban forces over a legal dispute that he had with the owner of the marketplace. His pharmacy was seized and given to Taliban members’ friends. Source: ACLED

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November 2022: In the PD12, Kabul city, a university teacher was arrested and taken to an unknown location by the Taliban forces. His relatives claim he was targeted because of his Anti-Taliban thoughts. Source: ACLED¹

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21 September 2022: In Korangal village, Dara-e-Pech district, Kunar province, a polio vaccinator was killed by the Taliban forces after he criticised them for staring at women. Source: ACLED¹

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10 September 2022: In Logar province, a doctor was beaten up by Taliban forces and taken to an unknown location in Puli Alam city because he had examined a woman, a practice forbidden under Taliban rules. Source: ACLED¹

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04 July 2022: In Sayed Jamaluddin town, Bagrami district, Kabul, a doctor who was also the Director of Ibn-Sina Private Institute was shot dead by gunmen. The motive for the incident is unknown and no group has claimed responsibility for his killing. The doctor was a controversial figure on social media because of his religious discussions and self proclamation of being a philosopher. Source: Khaama

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24 May 2022: In Shinwari district, Parwan province, a doctor and an ambulance driver were severely beaten by Taliban forces while they were transferring a patient to hospital. Source: ACLED¹

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18 November 2021: Update: In Mazar-e-Sharif city, Balkh, Nawabad area, a doctor who was kidnapped by gunmen in September was found dead. Sources: Afghan Islamic Press News Agency I  and Afghan Islamic Press News Agency II

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29 August 2021: In Kabul, a male Afghan aid worker working for California-based Nutrition and Education International was killed along with nine other civilians in a US drone strike that struck the car he was travelling in, according to investigation by the New York Times and Washington Post.Source: BBC

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The British newspaper The Telegraph has reported that the UK Parliament will discuss proposals to “blacklist Afghanistan”, potentially allowing authorities to jail citizens for up to 10 years if they were found to have visited the country. This comes as Sam Mort from UNICEF Afghanistan reports, a British citizen (Scotland) has stated that the Taliban are now providing security details for aid workers on humanitarian convoys in the country, and that UNICEF, including some international staff members, will remain and cooperate with the Taliban in order to continue humanitarian assistance projects.

The UK, like many of the major donor countries to Afghanistan, is currently discussing how to disseminate much needed aid throughout Afghanistan. Although travel to Afghanistan is likely to be temporarily stalled for UK citizens for the time being, whilst the UK government assesses the Taliban’s commitment to human and female rights, it is highly unlikely to have a blanket ban on all citizens travelling to the country for either diplomatic reasons or humanitarian assistance. Indeed, the Government has just doubled aid to £286 million, meaning the country is now one of it’s largest bilateral programs. Therefore any such proposal – which has not been discussed or confirmed yet – will unlikely to include international staff of accredited aid organisations, though strict due diligence and governance SOPs would need to be followed, if the UK did decide to ban further entry to Afghanistan.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/british-govt-discuss-criminalising-entering-afghanistan-telegraph-2021-08-23/