INTERNATIONAL: The Taliban has claimed victory over rebels in the northeastern valley of Panjshir, saying it is now in full control of Afghanistan. The group says it will also make an announcement “soon” on the formation of a new government. Members of the Taliban were filmed raising their unpopular flag in front of the gate to the Panjshir provincial governor’s compound. Days of fighting have come to an end in the valley, with the Taliban promising there’ll be no reprisals for the region’s people.
The National Resistance Front of Afghanistan, led by Panjshiri leader Ahmad Massoud, has not conceded defeat though. Its leader has taken to social media to say he’s safe and in hiding. Only at the weekend he said he was ready for peace talks. The group now says it will continue fighting.
Taliban spokesperson, Zabihullah Mujahid, addressed a media briefing in Kabul late on Monday. He says Massoud and former vice president Amrullah Saleh have fled to neighbouring Tajikistan. Mujahid says the Taliban’s focus is now on the formation of a new government and that an announcement would be made “soon”. He also said women were back at work in the health and education sectors. How they are back might raise some eyebrows though.
Pictures circulating on social media in the country show university classrooms divided into sections for male and female students. What happens in universities and schools across the country is being closely watched by governments around the world. Some Western countries have said aid and formal recognition of the Taliban would depend on how they run the country, including their treatment of women and girls. When they last ruled Afghanistan, girls were banned from school and women from university and work. The Taliban now say women's rights will be “honoured in accordance with Islamic law” and it would seem these pictures indicate exactly what they have in mind.
A more pressing issue for the Taliban though is the state of the country’s healthcare system. The WHO says hundreds of medical facilities are at risk of imminent closure, because donors who provide the financing are not allowed to deal with the Taliban. The WHO's emergency director for the Eastern Mediterranean, Rick Brennan, says urgent supplies, equipment and financing are being arranged. He says the WHO is liaising with Qatar for medical deliveries in the next week, now that Kabul’s main airport has reopened for a limited number of flights.
