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Save the Children warns humanitarian crisis looming in Kabul
An estimated 72,000 children have been displaced and have fled to Kabul due to ongoing clashes across Afghanistan, said Save the Children Saturday.
The organization also warned of possible outbreaks of diseases as families camping out in open spaces have no toilet facilities.
The organization stated that these children and their family members need immediate humanitarian aid.
This comes as tens of thousands of people have fled to Kabul as the Taliban advanced across the country, capturing around 20 provincial capitals.
In the latest development, the militants seized control of Paktia’s Gardez city, Paktika’s Sharana city, and southern Kandahar city in the last 24 hours.
Save the Children said in a statement that many of the children are living on the streets, in tarpaulin tents, and are going hungry.
According to the organization, more than 324 families that have arrived in Kabul in the last few days had little or no access to food or other forms of support.
“Many families have taken desperate measures to survive, such as selling their belongings to get money for food, sending their children to work, or cutting back severely on food.
All of the families said they have run up debt to get to safety,” the statement read.
“This is a humanitarian disaster unfolding in front of the world’s eyes,” said Christopher Nyamandi, country director for Save the Children in Afghanistan.
“Families already living in Kabul have brought the food they could spare to help the displaced, but there’s just not enough. And more families are arriving every hour. We will start to see children going hungry or even sliding into malnutrition very soon,” Nyamandi added.
He stated: “People are drinking water from dirty containers, the circumstances are unhygienic. We’re one step away from a disease outbreak.”
“The people of Afghanistan not only need the world’s attention, they need the world’s help to get through this. These are families with children, old people. Our staff came across at least 13 pregnant women. We can’t turn our back on them. We need tents, food, clean water, sanitation. Immediately,” Nyamandi noted.
“The only real solution is an end to the fighting, and the warring parties coming to an agreement. But until that time, we need to support the children and their families who have been caught up in this terrible conflict,” he said.
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US companies are welcome to join TAPI project: Turkmenistan’s ex-president
In an interview with Al Arabiya, former Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov said international companies, including United States firms, are welcome to join the Turkmenistan–Afghanistan–Pakistan–India (TAPI) gas pipeline project.
Berdymukhamedov noted that while the project enjoys U.S. support, it will need to navigate longstanding regional tensions, as Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India have seen outbreaks of deadly fighting over the past year.
“This project, which enjoys international support, including from the United States, possesses immense potential in meeting the growing energy needs of South Asian nations. It also opens promising avenues for accessing the emerging markets of the Asia-Pacific region, the Near East, and the Middle East,” he said.
“The TAPI project is also of paramount importance for political stability and economic prosperity, maintaining high investment attractiveness,” Berdymukhamedov added.
Turkmenistan plans to complete the first section of the pipeline, reaching the Afghan city of Herat, by the end of 2026. No plans have yet been announced to extend the project further south.
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UK’s Reform party pledges visa ban affecting Afghanistan and five other states
The British political party Reform UK, led by Nigel Farage, is set to impose a blanket visa ban on Afghanistan and five other countries — including Pakistan — as part of its proposed crackdown on illegal migration and states refusing to accept deported nationals.
In a speech set for Monday, the party’s newly appointed “shadow” home secretary, Zia Yusuf, will outline plans to halt all visas for diplomats, students, workers, VIPs and tourists from Pakistan, Somalia, Eritrea, Syria, Afghanistan and Sudan. Reform says these governments fail to cooperate in accepting back deported migrants and convicted criminals.
Pakistan received more than 160,000 UK visas last year, making it one of the biggest visa recipients. However, British officials say Islamabad accepts back only a small fraction of rejected asylum seekers and has resisted pressure to take back individuals convicted in high-profile criminal cases.
The move – which mirrors US President Donald Trump’s visa ban on 75 countries – would be a key element in Reform’s strategy to deport up to 288,000 illegal migrants from the UK on five charter flights a day.
On legal migration, Yusuf will say a Reform government would terminate all welfare payments to foreign nationals, including the 1.3 million currently receiving UC, up from around 900,000 in 2022.
Yusuf is expected to say that years of weak immigration enforcement have undermined public trust and that a Reform government would secure Britain’s borders and make people feel safe.
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Ex-US envoy Khalilzad condemns Pakistan air attacks on Afghanistan
He described the situation as a tragedy for both Pakistan and its neighbors, urging the Pakistani leadership to reconsider its policies and change course.
Former U.S. Special Envoy for Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, has strongly condemned Sunday’s airstrikes by Pakistan on Afghanistan. He stated that these attacks killed and wounded numerous innocent women, children, and elderly.
Khalilzad pointed to Pakistan’s long history of misgovernance, interference in minority rights, manipulation of democratic processes, and repeated military takeovers as the root causes.
He described the situation as a tragedy for both Pakistan and its neighbors, urging the Pakistani leadership to reconsider its policies and change course.
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