Azadi Briefing

Welcome to The Azadi Briefing, an RFE/RL newsletter that unpacks the key issues in Afghanistan. To subscribe, click here.

I'm Abubakar Siddique, senior correspondent at RFE/RL's Radio Azadi. Here's what I've been tracking and what I'm keeping an eye on in the days ahead.

The Key Issue

The only technocrat in the Taliban’s cabinet has been dismissed and replaced by a hard-line cleric.

Taliban chief Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada on May 28 removed Health Minister Qalandar Ebad, a trained doctor, and named Noor Jalal, a former deputy interior minister, as his successor.

The move has triggered criticism and added to fears over the health sector in Afghanistan, which has been in crisis over a lack of funding.

Former Afghan lawmaker Arif Rahmani said on X, formerly Twitter, on May 28 that the move was irrational and accused the Taliban leadership of “carelessness and arrogance.” He added that a technocrat was needed to oversee the health-care system.

Gholam Dastgir Nazari, a former Health Ministry official, said that providing health care was impossible without “good professional leadership.”

Why It's Important: The move appears aimed at purging non-Taliban Afghans, including technocrats and professionals, from the Taliban-led government.

The Taliban’s theocratic regime is dominated by senior Taliban veterans and loyalists, most of them clerics from the Pashtun ethnic group.

Ali Latifi, an Afghan-American journalist based in Kabul, said Ebad’s removal was significant because he was considered to be a “capable and effective” administrator.

Latifi said health-care professionals believed that Ebad was “trying to keep medical treatment available to Afghans across the country, including women.”

Under Akhundzada’s leadership, the Taliban has imposed restrictions on women’s access to health care and limited women’s ability to work in the health sector.

Akhundzada has previously replaced ministers who have defied his hard-line policies with loyal clerics, including the minister of education.

What's Next: The move is likely to further damage the health-care system in Afghanistan, which has been in free fall since the Taliban seized power in 2021. International donors immediately cut financial funding and imposed sanctions on the Taliban government.

Hundreds of health facilities have been shuttered in the past two years, with no funds to pay the salaries of doctors and nurses. Hospitals that are still open suffer from severe shortages of medicine.

Ebad’s sacking could also be part of a wider overhaul of the Taliban government. There has been speculation that Akhundzada wants to establish an administration that would be entirely made up of clerics loyal to him.

What To Keep An Eye On

The first freight train from Afghanistan reached Turkey via Iran on May 29. The nearly 2,200-kilometer journey took 40 days.

The train transported over 1,100 tons of talc from the western Afghan city of Herat to the eastern Turkish city of Van.

"The customs clearance process caused the delay," Mohammad Yusuf Amin, director of the Herat Chamber of Commerce and Investment, told Radio Azadi.

Talc exporters hope the new route will allow them to access international markets. Afghanistan currently exports up to 500,000 tons of talc annually.

Why It's Important: Transport by railway is seen as the fastest and cheapest means of moving goods.

For decades, Afghan governments have participated in regional railway projects to better connect the landlocked country to Central Asia and western Asia.

New railway links or the revival of dormant railways can open more routes and markets for Afghan exports.

Railway transport can help reduce Afghanistan’s dependence on neighboring Pakistan. Transit goods of Afghan traders have been sporadically stranded in Pakistan’s ports and border crossings because of bilateral tensions.

That's all from me for now.

Don't forget to send me any questions, comments, or tips that you have. You can always reach us at azadi.english@rferl.org

Until next time,

Abubakar Siddique

If you enjoyed this briefing and don't want to miss the next edition, subscribe here. It will be sent to your inbox every Friday.

Welcome to The Azadi Briefing, an RFE/RL newsletter that unpacks the key issues in Afghanistan. To subscribe, click here.

I'm Abubakar Siddique, senior correspondent at RFE/RL's Radio Azadi. Here's what I've been tracking and what I'm keeping an eye on in the days ahead.

The Key Issue

Flash floods that have ravaged Afghanistan in recent weeks have exacerbated the hunger crisis in the country, aid agencies said.

Hundreds of people have been killed, thousands of homes destroyed, and thousands of hectares of farmland wiped out by the floods in northern Afghanistan since May 10.

The UN World Food Program (WFP) has warned that flooding is likely to intensify in the months ahead, with a major impact on food security.

Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for the UN secretary-general, said flood-affected areas are "hunger hot spots, most of which are already in crisis levels of food insecurity.”

Why It's Important: Survivors of the floods have said they urgently need help.

"We need shelter and water,” Tora Khan, a resident of Baghlan, told RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi. “Drinking water is very scarce because many wells were destroyed.”

Relief organizations have struggled to deliver aid to at least 80,000 people affected by the floods, most of them in the provinces of Baghlan and Ghor.

Without help, there are fears that some Afghans are likely to succumb to disease or starvation.

“We are in dire need of water,” said Mohammad Yaser, a resident of Baghlan, who added that some local charities had sent them some food and clean water.

“But we don’t know how long until we run out,” Yaser told Radio Azadi. “Maybe today or tomorrow.”

The UN estimates that nearly 24 million Afghans out of a total population of 40 million need humanitarian assistance this year. The WFP said almost 16 million Afghans are acutely food insecure.

What's Next: Afghanistan is one of the world’s most vulnerable countries to climate change. Experts say extreme weather events, including floods and droughts, are spurred by climate change and likely to increase.

The Taliban’s unrecognized government is internationally isolated and international humanitarian funding for Afghanistan has been declining.

That is likely to make the country ill-equipped to prepare for and react to major natural disasters.

What To Keep An Eye On

Turkish Airlines has resumed flights to Afghanistan. The airline suspended air travel to the country in the wake of the Taliban’s takeover in 2021.

Turkish Airlines said on May 21 that it will operate four flights from Istanbul to Kabul each week.

"I am jubilant," said Muska, a Kabul resident whose extended family lives in Turkey. "Now I can visit them, and they can visit us.”

Last year, Fly Dubai became the first major airline to resume flights to Afghanistan. Air Arabia, another low-cost airline in the United Arab Emirates, also restarted flights soon after.

Why It's Important: Turkish Airlines flights will make it easier for members of the Afghan diaspora, which numbers around 6 million, to visit their homeland.

The flights will also help the isolated country connect with the rest of the world. Istanbul is a major international aviation hub.

That's all from me for now.

Don't forget to send me any questions, comments, or tips that you have. You can always reach us at azadi.english@rferl.org

Until next time,

Abubakar Siddique

If you enjoyed this briefing and don't want to miss the next edition, subscribe here. It will be sent to your inbox every Friday.