Afghanistan
- By RFE/RL
Top U.S. General Says IS Still 'Worrisome' In Afghanistan, But Unlikely To Mount U.S. Attacks
A senior U.S. general says the Islamic State (IS) extremist group remains a "very worrisome" presence in Afghanistan, but it is unlikely to mount an attack on the U.S. homeland because it is under strong military pressure.
Marine General Frank McKenzie, who heads the U.S. Central Command, on June 12 told reporters the extremist group "in Afghanistan certainly has aspirations to attack the United States."
"It is our clear judgment that as long as we maintain pressure on them it will be hard for them to do that," he said.
McKenzie, whose Central Command has responsibility for managing U.S. military operations across the Middle East, spoke in Germany with reporters after completing an eight-day trip to Qatar, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Egypt.
The AP earlier this week quoted U.S. and Afghan security officials as saying the extremist group in Afghanistan is expanding its presence, recruiting new members, and plotting attacks on the United States and other Western countries.
A U.S. intelligence official based in Afghanistan told AP that a recent series of attacks in the Afghan capital, Kabul, were "practice runs" for even bigger attacks in Europe and the United States.
Some experts said IS could use Afghanistan as a base for operations now that the terror group has mainly been driven from its former strongholds in Iraq and Syria.
McKenzie said he did not believe IS in Afghanistan has expanded its capabilities but that it does still represent a dangerous presence in the country.
He said that "they are very worrisome to us" in their eastern Afghanistan strongholds, and added that combat operations had failed to reduce the number of fighters.
Some experts have estimated that IS still has thousands of fighters in the country.
U.S. forces in Afghanistan are battling IS fighters -- a mission separate from their effort to advise and assist Afghanistan's defense forces in their battle against the Taliban militant group.
U.S. officials have been talking to Taliban representatives in Qatar, attempting to draw them into direct peace talks with the government in Kabul. The Taliban has so far refused to meet with Afghan officials, calling them puppets of the West.
IS extremists are not included in the talks, and U.S. and Afghan officials have not sought to bring them in, vowing to defeat them on the battlefield instead.
With reporting by AP
More News
- By Ray Furlong
AfD Surges As Afghan Attack Suspects Put Migrants At Heart Of German Elections
As Germany heads into pivotal federal elections on February 23, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party is making unprecedented gains.
But the party has also faced strong opposition from people who accuse it of exploiting a series of brutal attacks by migrants for political ends.
The most recent case was in the Bavarian town of Aschaffenburg, in which police arrested an Afghan man after a knife attack on a kindergarten group that left a 2-year-old boy and an adult male dead.
“He was supposed to have been deported,” said Hermann Priegnitz, an AfD candidate who was spending the morning hanging election posters on lampposts, told RFE/RL.
He was voicing a common lament, also made by Germany’s Social Democrat Interior Minister Nancy Faeser. But the AfD has more radical policies on migration than any other party.
It calls for “remigration,” meaning mass deportations of Syrians and Afghans.
Critics accuse the AfD of racism or even fascism. Germany’s domestic intelligence service is surveilling it for suspected right-wing extremism.
Priegnitz says the party is being targeted, showing me a video of people tearing down their posters. Today, he was using a ladder to place them out of reach.
He strongly defends remigration, rejecting the idea that it puts people in danger.
“There has always been conflict in Afghanistan, where various tribes fight each other. We can’t make peace for them here in Germany. These tribes, these people, the inhabitants of Afghanistan should do this in their own country.”
Later that day, we visited Sara Seerat. She used to work at the Women’s Ministry in Kabul, and was awarded the Franco-German Human Rights Prize in 2020 for her work helping Afghan girls and women gain access to education and employment.
'I Did Not Feel Safe'
After the Taliban regained power in 2021, she was invited to Germany on humanitarian grounds, along with her two brothers and her parents. The family now shares a small two-bedroom flat on the edge of Berlin.
Seerat said that the attack in Aschaffenburg left her and many Afghans shocked and concerned.
“I personally did not feel safe. Because when I went outside or to class, I thought everyone was looking at me and thinking: ‘She is an Afghan with similar thoughts, and she could be dangerous for our country’.”
She is indeed not alone in this. A few days before we talked to the AfD, a video went viral in Germany of a 12-year-old Afghan girl breaking down in tears after apologizing for the attack at a public meeting. She was comforted by an adult who told her that, of course, she had nothing to apologize for.
Seerat said she was worried about the way events like these were affecting German society, but did not fear that mass deportations would become reality. She noted that no other party has promoted the idea, and that the AfD is highly unlikely to become part of a new governing coalition after the election.
There has for years been a taboo in Germany on working with the AfD. But its hard line on migration, coupled with several attacks over the last 12 months, has arguably had an influence on German politics.
'People Are Asking For A Stricter Regime'
Other parties have also promised to be “tough” on migration and, last year, Germany put 28 Afghans on a deportation flight to Kabul.
Interior Minister Faeser said it was the only European country doing so.
Recently, the Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU), likely election winners, voted with the AfD in parliament to promote tighter border controls.
This led to nationwide mass protests, with some 250,000 people gathering in Munich to condemn the CDU/CSU breaking the “firewall” around the AfD.
CDU/CSU lawmaker Juergen Hardt told us he had no difficultly explaining his party’s stance in his constituency. He represents the western town of Solingen, where three people were killed and eight injured in a mass stabbing in August. The attack was claimed by the extremist Islamic State group, and the police arrested a Syrian suspect.
“Two of the victims in Solingen were from a sports club there. There was an annual reception at that sports club, and it was hard to be there because two people were missing,” he said.
“People in Germany are asking for a stricter regime on asylum seekers.”
The day after our meeting with Sara Seerat, a car plowed into a crowd in Munich. The police said they had arrested the driver, an Afghan man, and were investigating an attack with an Islamist motive.
A 37-year-old Algerian-German woman and her 2-year-old daughter were killed. The family made a plea that the attack not be misused for political purposes.
But it has, once again, pushed the issue of migration front and center of Germany’s election.
- By RFE/RL
Trump Praises Musk For Work Cutting Government Waste
U.S. President Donald Trump defended his decision to give billionaire businessman Elon Musk a major role in his administration as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) amid backlash over the freezing of funding for USAID, which affected foreign assistance programs around the world.
Trump curtailed the U.S. Agency for International Development work when he ordered a 90-day spending freeze on January 24. The decision affected numerous businesses and nonprofit groups in Ukraine, which are now struggling to cope. It also affected aid programs for people in Afghanistan.
Trump and Musk touched on the move during their first joint TV interview, which aired on February 18 on Fox News, a conservative U.S. news outlet. Trump said he took the step to freeze USAID's funding because his predecessor, President Joe Biden, overspent, including on foreign aid that he said did not serve U.S. interests, and widened the deficit.
Since 2022, USAID has provided Ukraine with billions of dollars in humanitarian aid, development assistance, and direct budget support. Musk and Trump were not asked about the suspension of aid to the programs in Ukraine during the interview or Trump's diplomatic efforts to end the war in Ukraine.
The interview focused more on Trump's relationship with Musk, the world’s richest man, and why he chose him to head DOGE.
“I know a lot of businessmen and they are not necessarily good people,” Trump said. Musk is a great person who “wants to see the country do well,” Trump told Fox News interviewer Sean Hannity, who is a friend of the president.
DOGE has been rooting out government waste, fraud, and abuse, Trump said, and has already saved American taxpayers millions of dollars.
Since Trump returned to office on January 20, DOGE has gone from department to department, laying off or firing thousands of government employees in a major shakeup of the federal government designed to cut costs and shrink its size. A list of programs that have been identified, some costing hundreds of millions of dollars, scrolled on the screen during the joint interview.
Musk said he took the role to reduce the bureaucracy and prevent the United States from going bankrupt.
“The goal is to try to get a trillion dollars out of the deficit,” Musk said, claiming that Trump “was handed a two-trillion deficit when he came to office.”
Musk said the average American taxpayer should be “mad as hell” over the way their tax dollars have been spent.
He said some of the people on his DOGE team, which has come under withering criticism from Democrats for taking what they say is illegal actions as it slashes programs, are federal employees. Others are software engineers who could be earning million-dollar salaries but have instead opted to work for him.
The president said Musk has only been implementing his executive orders, and vowed that traditional programs such as Social Security and the government-funded health insurance programs Medicare and Medicaid “won’t be touched” by the cuts.
However, the arrival of DOGE employees this week at the Social Security Administration prompted the abrupt resignation of its chief over an apparent clash with Musk's cost-cutting team. Other senior federal officials have resigned when confronted with DOGE’s scorched-earth approach to federal spending.
Trump also said that Musk has not asked him for any favors for his companies -- namely SpaceX, which holds multiple contracts with the U.S. government, and Tesla, which has benefited from U.S. subsidies to promote electric vehicles.
Musk said he would recuse himself if he’s ever confronted with a situation involving his businesses, and Trump said, “If there’s ever a conflict, he won’t be involved.”
Musk told Hannity he has paid a price for his support for Trump but intends to continue.
“I’m a technologist and I try to make technologies that help people and improve the world,” said Musk, who wore a sport coat over a T-shirt with the words Tech Support across the front.
Trump said he has always respected Musk, but his admiration for him grew when he opened the use of Starlink communications satellites to people in North Carolina whose communities had been devastated by a hurricane last year.
His admiration only grew when SpaceX was able to return a rocket to Earth and be grasped out of the air “like a beautiful little baby,” and he decided he wanted him on his team.
Will Russians Be Able To Buy Coca-Cola Again Thanks To The Taliban?
The Coca-Cola Company left Russia at the start of Russia’s 2022invasion of Ukraine, but now Russian Ambassador to Afghanistan Dmitry Zhirnov announced a range of trade agreements with the Taliban, and that includes Coca-Cola.
- By RFE/RL's Radio Azadi and
- Ray Furlong
Afghan Detained In Munich Attack Sparks Fears Among Rest Of Community
MUNICH, Germany -- Police in Munich arrested an Afghan asylum seeker after he rammed a car into a crowd in the German city, injuring 28 people and leaving many Afghans in the country on edge amid calls during an election campaign for tougher immigration laws.
Despite a heavy police presence in the city a day before many high-profile leaders such as U.S. Vice President JD Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy attend the Munich Security Conference, the man, identified by German media as 24-year-old Farhad N., drove his vehicle into a demonstration held by trade unionists.
"The suspect will be brought before an investigating judge tomorrow [February 14]. We are still at the crime scene with our forensic team and specialists," Munich police said.
Police said they fired one shot at the vehicle, a Mini Cooper, and arrested the man at the scene where victims, clothes and even a stroller were strewn around the street.
Munich police said authorities have "indications of an extremist motive" and that prosecutors are investigating. Several news outlets, including Der Spiegel, cited sources as saying the man is thought to have posted Islamist content online before the attack.
"Afghans living in Germany are deeply saddened and worried about their future due to this and similar incidents," Rahmatullah Ziarmaal, an Afghan journalist who lives in the city of Limburg, told RFE/RL's Radio Azadi.
"Many Afghans feel particularly distressed by such events, fearing that anti-immigration parties will exploit them for political gain, making life even more difficult for refugees."
Joachim Herrmann, the interior minister for the state of Bavaria, said the suspect's application for asylum had been rejected, but he hadn't been deported because of security concerns in Afghanistan.
The incident is likely to enflame already heated rhetoric as Germans prepare to vote in parliamentary elections on February 23.
Germany has the largest Afghan community in Europe with an estimated 377,000 Afghan citizens residing in the country at the end of 2022, according to the country's statistics agency.
"We have to continue with deportations...even to Afghanistan, a very difficult country," Interior Minister Nancy Faeser told reporters in Munich.
Several violent incidents involving immigrants have bolstered far-right candidates, who narrowly trail center-right conservatives.
Both have been critical of Social Democrat Chancellor Olaf Scholz, accusing him of being soft on immigration, which they blame for an increase in violent crime rates.
Yousuf Rahimi, an Afghan resident of Munich who is awaiting approval of his asylum application, told RFE/RL that many Afghans come to the country because of the open immigration policies but fail to assimilate and end up getting involved in crime and drugs.
"People like this create difficulties for Afghans like me who genuinely seek asylum, want to contribute positively to German society, and hope to build a future here," he said.
With reporting by dpa and Reuters
Two Killed In Botched Suicide Bombing Attack On Taliban Ministry
A suicide bombing attack on the Taliban-led Ministry for Urban Development office in the Afghan capital, Kabul, has killed two people and injured three more.
Taliban authorities said the attacker was one of the people killed in the February 13 attack.
“The suicide bomber was identified and eliminated at the entrance of the ministry,” said Mohammad Kamal Afghan, a spokesman for the Taliban's Urban Development Ministry.
He told journalists that the attack happened just before noon local time.
No group has immediately accepted responsibility for the attack.
But the Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K), an ultraradical rival of the Taliban, claimed credit for a separate attack earlier this week.
On February 11, at least eight people were killed in a suicide bank outside a bank in the northern city of Kunduz. IS-K said it targeted the Taliban government employees while they collected their salaries.
Earlier on December 11, an IS-K suicide bomber killed Khalil ur-Rahman Haqqani, the Taliban’s refugee minister. Five more people were killed in the attack inside the Refugee Ministry compound in Kabul.
Haqqani, in his 60s, was the most senior Taliban figure killed by IS-K since the Taliban seized power in August 2021.
IS-K has repeatedly targeted Afghanistan's Shi’ite minority and followers of the moderate Sufi orders.
In recent years, the group has embarked on terror attacks internationally. Last year, it claimed credit for attacks in Iran and Russia. Individuals linked to the group have also been detained in the United States and Europe.
On February 10, a meeting of the UN Security Council declared the group a significant threat to global security.
“We remain concerned about IS-K's capabilities to plot and conduct attacks as well as sustain recruitment campaigns, particularly in Afghanistan and Pakistan,” said Dorothy Shea, the interim U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
The Taliban promised security after returning to power three years ago but has not been able to stamp out attacks by the IS-K. It launched a brutal crackdown against the IS-K and claimed to have killed or detained hundreds of its members.
Afghanistan’s tiny Salafist minority, however, has complained of being on the receiving end of the Taliban clampdown on IS-K as its members were unjustly persecuted.
In 2015, the IS-K emerged as the local branch of the Islamic State, which ruled vast swathes of territories in Syria and Iraq.
With reporting by RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi, VOA, Reuters, and AFP
- By Mustafa Sarwar and
- Frud Bezhan
Taliban Divisions Laid Bare As Afghanistan Power Struggle Intensifies
The Taliban has for years presented a united front to the outside world and kept a tight lid on dissent within its ranks.
But unprecedented displays of discord have laid bare the rifts in the secretive militant group and exposed an intensifying power struggle.
The internal divisions could spill over into violence, experts warn, and trigger a new civil war that would further destabilize the volatile region.
“Despite a culture of secrecy and unity, recently there have been public shows of disunity,” said Michael Semple, a former EU and UN adviser to Afghanistan. “These suggest that the movement is under real strain.”
‘Chaotic And Uncertain’
In December, the Taliban’s Refugees Minister Khalil Haqqani was killed in a suicide bombing. He is the most senior official to be killed since the hard-line Islamist group seized power in 2021.
Privately, most of Haqqani’s supporters accused his rivals in the Taliban of ordering his assassination, according to experts.
In January, a senior Taliban official left the country soon after appearing to criticize the Taliban’s spiritual leader Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada, who has the ultimate say under the group’s clerical-led system.
“Follow him, but not to the extent that, God forbid, you grant him the rank of prophethood or divinity,” said Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, the Taliban’s deputy foreign minister, according to an audio recording released last month. “If you deviate even a step from God's path, then you are no longer my leader, I do not recognize you.”
Stanikzai also criticized Akhundzada’s ban on girls’ education, which has provoked international condemnation.
He confirmed that he was in the United Arab Emirates, but said it was due to health reasons. Reports suggest Stanikzai fled Afghanistan after Akhundzada issued a warrant for his arrest and ordered a travel ban.
Meanwhile, a growing number of Taliban members have openly complained about delays to the payment of their salaries.
The Taliban has denied that there are any rifts in the group. Chief Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told the private Tolo News that the group “will never engage in disagreements, become a source of division, or take actions that could lead to misfortune or bring instability back to the country."
But several sources in the Taliban, who spoke to RFE/RL on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media, described the current atmosphere as “chaotic” and “uncertain.”
The sources also said that officials were banned from leaving the country unless they received authorization from Akhundzada.
“These developments suggest a real challenge to the movement’s unity, between those Taliban who feel marginalized and those who feel empowered,” said Semple, a professor at Queen's University Belfast.
“We are now in new territory. The political and military opposition to the Taliban is weaker than in the 1990s,” added Semple, referring to the Taliban first stint in power. “But the expectations of the Afghan population are much higher and the levels of popular frustration with Taliban performance are unprecedented. Unhappy Taliban know this.”
Internal Competition
The internal rifts in the Taliban have increasingly come to the fore since the group regained power in 2021.
Akhundzada, who rarely leaves his stronghold in the southern city of Kandahar, has monopolized power, marginalized more moderate figures, and enforced hard-line policies that have made Afghanistan an international pariah.
Among Akhundzada’s rivals is Sirajuddin Haqqani, the Taliban’s interior minister and leader of the Haqqani network, a powerful faction that wields significant influence in eastern Afghanistan.
Others include Mullah Mohammad Yaqub, the defense minister and son of the group’s founder, Mullah Mohammad Omar, as well as Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, who headed the group’s political office in Qatar and is the deputy prime minister in the Taliban cabinet.
“Recent events, particularly tensions between different factions within the Taliban, are a significant challenge to their unity, but they are not the only or necessarily the biggest threat,” said Hatef Mukhtar, director of the Afghanistan Center for Strategic Studies.
There are splits in the Taliban along ideological lines. Some Taliban leaders want international recognition and economic investment, while others prioritize enforcing strict Islamic rule, even at the cost of isolation, said Mukhtar.
The growing influence of the Kandahar-based leadership at the expense of former battlefield commanders and the political office is also a source of tension, Mukhtar said.
Meanwhile, the Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K) extremist group continues to pose a threat to the Taliban, testing the group’s ability to maintain security.
Underscoring that threat, IS-K claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing outside a bank in northern Afghanistan on February 11 that killed five people, the Taliban said. But two Taliban sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media, said at least 14 were killed in the attack, including members of the group.
The Taliban’s cash-strapped and unrecognized government has also come under increasing financial pressure.
U.S. President Donald Trump has frozen all foreign aid, including to Afghanistan. That is likely to aggravate the devastating humanitarian crisis in the country. Meanwhile, the value of the national currency, the afghani, has plummeted in recent weeks, triggering price hikes.
Experts say that while the Taliban has shown resilience in managing internal disputes, escalating tensions could threaten the group’s cohesion.
The most likely scenario is “low-level infighting, assassinations, and internal purges rather than an open military confrontation,” said Mukhtar.
“But if the Taliban fails to address its internal divisions, Afghanistan could eventually see another cycle of intra-Islamist conflict,” he added.
- By RFE/RL
Trump Signs Order Imposing Sanctions On International Criminal Court
U.S. President Donald Trump has signed an executive order slapping sanctions on officials with the International Criminal Court for opening investigations targeting the United States and Israel.
Trump's order said the court in The Hague “has engaged in illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America and our close ally Israel.”
The executive order, signed by Trump on February 6, said those actions “set a dangerous precedent, directly endangering current and former United States personnel,” including members of the U.S. military.
The order refers to an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over his actions toward Palestinians in Gaza and recent actions by the court that endanger members of the U.S. military.
The order was signed after Netanyahu visited Trump at the White House on February 4. It notes that neither the United States nor Israel are members of the court.
Trump’s order imposes sanctions, including barring ICC officials, employees, and family members from entering the United States and freezes any assets they hold in U.S. jurisdiction. The sanctions also apply to anyone deemed to have helped the court's investigations.
The ICC issued arrest warrants on November 21 for Netanyahu, former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif -- who Israel says is dead.
The warrants are for "crimes against humanity and war crimes committed from at least 8 October 2023 until at least 20 May 2024."
Hamas, which has been designated a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union, launched an attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, that killed some 1,200 people, mostly Israeli citizens, and took hundreds of others hostage. A subsequent Israeli offensive aimed at neutralizing Hamas has killed tens of thousands of people, mostly in the Gaza Strip.
Trump in 2020 during his first administration imposed financial sanctions and a visa ban on the ICC's then-prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, and other senior officials and staff. The move came after Bensouda launched an investigation into allegations of war crimes against U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan.
President Joe Biden lifted the sanctions soon after taking office in 2021.
ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan,Khan later effectively dropped the United States from the Afghan investigation.
With reporting by AFP
- By RFE/RL
U.S. Lawmakers Vow To Defend USAID After Agency's Employees Locked Out
Democratic members of Congress have challenged the Trump administration's apparent attempt to fold the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) into the State Department, a move that calls into question funding for aid programs around the world, including billions of dollars in development aid to Ukraine.
The lawmakers gathered outside the main office of the USAID in downtown Washington on February 3 to criticize what they called an “illegal maneuver” by Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who has been tasked by President Donald Trump with downsizing the government.
The Democratic lawmakers held the gathering as a protest after reports that agency employees had been told not to report to work on February 3 and subsequently were locked out of their government e-mail and other accounts as a gutting of the agency appeared to be under way.
“We spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper,” Musk said on X on February 3.
The lawmakers who spoke outside the agency’s main office in Washington defended the work of the USAID and said the actions interfered with congressional power.
“We don’t have a fourth branch of government called Elon Musk. And that’s going to become real clear,” said Representative Jamie Raskin (Democrat-Maryland).
He added that he didn’t know what Musk’s motivations were, “but they’ve got nothing to do with what has been lawfully adopted by the people of the United States of America through the Congress of the United States. We’re going to defend USAID all the way.”
Senator Chris Murphy (Democrat-Connecticut) said the move created a constitutional crisis and vowed to fight it.
“The people get to decide how their taxpayer money is spent. Elon Musk does not get to decide,” he said, also speaking alongside Raskin at the USAID building.
Murphy called the move an attempt to “turn this government over to a handful of unelected billionaires and corporate interests, and we are not going to let them do that.”
USAID is an independent government agency established by Congress in 1961 and has a workforce of approximately 10,000 people around the world. It is the U.S. government’s main international aid arm and receives tens of billions of dollars from Congress annually to fund programs in some of the world's poorest countries.
These include anti-poverty programs, health programs, disaster relief, and programs to promote democracy and defend human rights.
A recent report from the Congressional Research Service (CRS) said USAID in fiscal year 2023 managed more than $40 billion in combined appropriations to support projects in around 130 countries. The top three recipients of aid were Ukraine, Ethiopia, and Jordan. Afghanistan is also one of the top 10 recipients of USAID funding.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed that he is the acting director of USAID but said he has delegated that authority so he would not be running its day-to-day operations. He informed Congress of the reorganization of the agency in a letter, saying some parts of USAID might be absorbed by the State Department and the remainder may be abolished.
The move is “not about ending the programs that USAID does,” but about taking policy direction from the State Department, Rubio said.
Speaking in El Salvador during a visit to South America, Rubio said he has been frustrated with USAID for years by what he said was the agency’s refusal to respond to State Department policy directives. The agency “has to be aligned with American foreign policy,” he said.
Rubio stressed that the money that USAID receives are taxpayer dollars, but the agency has become a “global charity separate from the national interest.”
In an interview with Fox News later on February 3, he said: “I think we’re going to be the most generous nation on Earth in a way that makes sense, that’s in our national interest.” The State Department posted a transcript of the interview at its website.
Members of Congress took aim at Musk, the world's richest man, when news broke early on February 3 that employees had been sent e-mails on February 2 telling them not to report to work the next day.
Senator Patty Murray (Democrat-Washington) accused Musk of taking the actions against USAID while SpaceX stands to make millions of dollars in profit from government contracts with the Pentagon.
Murray told a news conference at the Capitol that the freeze of already approved funds for USAID is putting “trust at the lowest level” seen in a lifetime and asked what funds would be seized next.
But the White House was adamant that the agency must be reformed, publishing a statement highlighting the "waste and abuse" it said existed at USAID, including $1.5 million to "advance diversity equity and inclusion in Serbia's workplaces and business communities."
It also singled out funding for the production of a “transgender opera" in Colombia, a “transgender comic book” in Peru, and for “sex changes and LGBT activism” in Guatemala.
“The list literally goes on and on -- and it has all been happening for decades,” the statement said. “Under President Trump, the waste, fraud, and abuse ENDS NOW.”
With reporting by Reuters, AP, and AFP
- By RFE/RL
Trump's USAID Reform Causes Alarm As Musk Weighs In On Foreign Aid
U.S. President Donald Trump's administration appears to be shuttering Washington's main international aid arm amid a blitz of executive actions targeting government spending, a move international humanitarian organizations have warned could have catastrophic consequences.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on February 3 that he is now the acting director of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and that he would end what he described as its "insubordination" to Trump's agenda.
"There are a lot of functions of USAID that are going to continue, that are going to be part of American foreign policy, but it has to be aligned with American foreign policy," Rubio told reporters during a visit to El Salvador.
CBS News, citing three U.S. officials it did not identify, reported that the agency will be merged into the State Department, with significant cuts in the workforce, but will remain a humanitarian aid entity. Reuters cited an unnamed senior White House official as saying Trump is considering merging USAID with the State Department.
Leading the charge against USAID is Elon Musk, Trump's point man on slashing government spending, who claims the administration can cut $1 trillion from the U.S. deficit and is positioning his drive as a battle against corruption.
USAID employees earlier received a notice that the agency's headquarters in Washington would be closed to personnel on February 3 "at the direction of Agency leadership," CNN and the Associated Press cited multiple sources as saying.
The website of USAID, which the UN says provides more than 40 percent of all humanitarian aid globally, was down on February 3, and Trump claimed the agency has "been run by a bunch of radical lunatics."
"We're getting them out, and then we'll make a decision" on USAID's future, he told reporters on February 2.
Trump's comments followed reports by CNN and Reuters that two senior USAID security officials had been placed on administrative leave after they tried to prevent representatives of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the Trump-established organization led by Musk, from accessing agency computer systems.
Musk himself called USAID, which administers tens of billions of dollars in U.S. foreign assistance approved by Congress, a "criminal organization" and that it is "time for it to die."
A group of senior Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on February 2 sent a letter to Rubio expressing "deep concern" over the Trump administration's moves targeting an organization they said was set up "to ensure that we can deploy development expertise and U.S. foreign assistance quickly, particularly in times of crisis, to meet our national security goals."
"Trump and Musk are illegally attempting to shut down USAID," U.S. Senator Brian Schatz, a Democrat from Hawaii, wrote on X on February 3. "The consequences of this are deadly and they are global. It is going to make all of us less safe."
The State Department under Rubio on January 24 ordered a freeze on new funding for almost all U.S. foreign assistance programs as part of Trump's drive to align the programs with his foreign policy goals.
Since assuming his post last month, Rubio has said of U.S. foreign aid under Trump: "Every dollar we spend, every program we fund, and every policy we pursue must be justified with the answer to three simple questions: Does it make America safer? Does it make America stronger? Does it make America more prosperous?"
Trump's executive order called for a 90-day pause in U.S. foreign development assistance to assess efficiencies and "consistency with United States foreign policy." It grants Rubio the power to waive the three-month pause for "specific programs."
Humanitarian groups and nongovernmental organizations across the globe voiced concern over the fate of USAID after Trump's executive order.
A pause in funding for Afghanistan "would be catastrophic for an operation for more than 22 million Afghans that need aid," Jan Egeland, the secretary-general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, told RFE/RL's Radio Azadi.
Since Russia launched its all-out war on Ukraine in February 2022, USAID has provided Ukraine with billions of dollars in humanitarian aid, development assistance, and direct budget support.
Trump has criticized the amount of aid -- including billions of dollars in weapons -- that the Biden administration has provided to Ukraine.
Svitlana Musiak, a researcher at the Kyiv-based Independent Anti-Corruption Commission (NAKO), an NGO, told RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service that a suspension of USAID funding to Ukraine could negatively impact civil-society programs and signal "reduced U.S. support for democratic reforms and economic stability in the country."
At the same time, some representatives of Ukrainian civil society support an audit, including Olena Trehub, executive director of the Independent Anti-Corruption Commission and a member of the Anti-Corruption Council at the Defense Ministry.
On February 2, Trehub wrote on Facebook that she had "always emphasized the need to reform USAID, as, by monitoring the effectiveness of projects, she saw how enormous budgets pass through this government agency and how often the results leave much to be desired."
At the same time, she noted that USAID had supported critically important reforms, civil society, humanitarian, and infrastructure projects that had a significant impact on Ukraine's development.
Speaking to CBS News on February 2, Republican Congressman Brian Mast of Florida said he is working with Rubio "to make sure that there's the appropriate command and control" of agencies like USAID.
Mast, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the House of Representatives, said he would support "removing USAID as a separate department" and having it fall under "other parts" of the State Department.
The senior Senate Democrats said in their February 2 letter to Rubio that "any effort to merge or fold USAID into the Department of State should be, and by law must be, previewed, discussed, and approved by Congress."
"Congress has also made clear that any attempt to reorganize or redesign USAID requires advance consultation with, and notification to, Congress," they wrote.
With reporting by Reuters and AP
Tensions Rise As U.S., Taliban Exchange Threats
Tensions between Washington and Taliban leaders in Afghanistan are rising a week into President Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio threatened on January 25 to place a bounty on Taliban leaders if the United States determines the group has imprisoned American citizens.
“Just hearing the Taliban is holding more American hostages than has been reported. If this is true, we will have to immediately place a VERY BIG bounty on their top leaders, maybe even bigger than the one we had on [Al-Qaeda leader Osama] Bin Laden,” Rubio wrote on X.
Sirajuddin Haqqani, the Taliban’s acting interior minister, is currently the only senior member of the group on the FBI’s most wanted list. However, dozens of Taliban officials are sanctioned by the United Nations.
Rubio’s comment came days after the Taliban released two Americans in exchange for a member of the Taliban serving a life sentence in the United States on drug and terrorism charges.
The Taliban’s first formal response to Rubio came on January 27, with Suhail Shahin, the group’s ambassador to Qatar, claiming that it was the Taliban’s policy to resolve issues peacefully through dialogue.
However, he warned in a statement to RFE/RL's Radio Azadi, “in the face of pressure and aggression, the jihad [struggle] of the Afghan nation in recent decades is a lesson that everyone should learn from.”
The Taliban fought U.S. and NATO troops for nearly 20 years until its return to power in 2021 following a chaotic and bloody withdrawal of foreign forces.
A U.S. Department of Defense report in 2022 said around $7 billion dollars worth of military equipment was left behind in Afghanistan during the withdrawal, which were subsequently seized by the Taliban.
Ahead of his inauguration on January 21, Trump warned that if the Taliban did not return U.S. military equipment, he would cut future financial assistance to Afghanistan.
The Taliban has not publicly responded to Trump, but a source told Radio Azadi that the group “will not give even a single bullet back to the United States.”
Since the withdrawal of foreign forces, the United States has channeled around $3 billion through the United Nations and nongovernmental organizations to help humanitarian programs in Afghanistan.
- By RFE/RL
U.S. May Put Bounty On Taliban Leaders Over Hostages, Rubio Says
The United States may place a bounty on the top leaders of the Taliban, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on January 25 after finding out that the group may be holding more American hostages in Afghanistan.
"Just hearing the Taliban is holding more American hostages than has been reported," Rubio said on X.
"If this is true, we will have to immediately place a very big bounty on their top leaders, maybe even bigger than the one we had on bin Laden," he added, referring to the Al-Qaeda leader and mastermind of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Bin Laden was killed in 2011 by the U.S. military in a nighttime raid in Pakistan.
U.S. officials and media confirmed earlier this week the release of two Americans held in Afghanistan in exchange for a Taliban man imprisoned for life in California on drug and terrorism charges.
The two Americans who were set free were not identified by the Afghan Foreign Ministry, but according to U.S. media reports and family members, they were Ryan Corbett and William McKenty.
No mention was made of two other U.S. citizens -- George Glezmann and Mahmood Habibi-- who have been held by the Taliban since 2022. It was unclear whether these were the hostages that Rubio referred to.
The member of the Taliban who was released was Khan Mohammed, who had been sentenced to two life terms in 2008. The Afghan Foreign Ministry said his release came “as a result of long and fruitful negotiations” between Afghanistan and the United States.
A member of the new administration of President Donald Trump told reporters in Washington that the deal was brokered by President Joe Biden’s team before he left office on January 20.
Details of the negotiations were not revealed. The United States, like most countries, does not recognize the Taliban -- which seized power in Kabul in mid-2021 -- as the legitimate rulers of Afghanistan.
White House National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes said in a statement on January 21 that the Trump administration "will continue to demand the release of all Americans held by the Taliban, especially in light of the billions of dollars in U.S. aid they’ve received in recent years."
Rubio's bounty comment came two days after the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) said that he has requested warrants for the Taliban's supreme leader, Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada, and the head of Afghanistan's Supreme Court, Abdul Hakim Haqqani.
Karim Khan announced that he is seeking arrest warrants for the alleged persecution of Afghan women and girls, an accusation the Taliban-run Foreign Ministry called "baseless."
In a statement, Khan said based on evidence collected thus far in an investigation reopened in October 2022 there were grounds to believe Akhundzada and Haqqani "bear criminal responsibility for the crime against humanity of persecution on gender grounds."
Mir Abdul Wahid Sadat, head of the Afghan Lawyers Association, told RFE/RL, that the ICC decisions and actions "have strong consequences" and said Khan's announcement was "a big threat to the Taliban."
With reporting by Reuters
- By RFE/RL
U.S. Issues Broad Freeze On Foreign Aid Pending Reviews
The U.S. State Department on January 24 ordered a freeze on new funding for almost all U.S. foreign assistance programs as part of President Donald Trump's push to align the programs with his foreign policy goals.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio sent a message to U.S. embassies worldwide spelling out the implementation of an executive order Trump signed on January 20 saying that "no further United States foreign assistance shall be disbursed in a manner that is not fully aligned with the foreign policy of the President of the United States."
Trump's order said current U.S. foreign aid is "not aligned with American interests and in many cases antithetical to American values." It said aid programs "serve to destabilize world peace" by promoting ideas that conflict with stable relations within the countries they serve and relations between those countries and others.
The executive order calls for a 90-day pause in U.S. foreign development assistance to assess efficiencies and "consistency with United States foreign policy." The sweeping order affects new disbursements of funds to foreign countries, NGOs, international organizations, and contractors pending reviews of the programs.
Trump and other Republicans had vowed to crackdown on U.S. foreign aid programs, and Rubio's memo justified the freeze by saying it was impossible for the new administration to assess whether existing foreign aid commitments "are not duplicated, are effective, and are consistent with President Trump's foreign policy."
The new chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Representative Brian Mast (Republican-Florida), promised this week that Republicans would question "every dollar and every diplomat" in the State Department's budget to ensure it met their standards for strictly necessary.
Mast said in a press release after Rubio was confirmed as secretary of state that he intends to work with Rubio to “root out” waste at the State Department.
The ranking member on the House Foreign Affairs Committee reacted to the move by saying it "undermines American leadership and credibility" around the world.
"United States foreign assistance programs promote stability in other countries to help stop crises from expanding directly to our doorstep," Representative Gregory Meeks (Democrat-New York) said in a letter to Rubio. "Foreign assistance is not a handout; it is a strategic investment in our future that is vital for U.S. global leadership and a more resilient world."
The letter said U.S. foreign aid directly serves U.S. interests and demonstrates the country's credibility to allies, partners, and vulnerable people who rely on American assistance for survival.
By pausing current programs and preventing new ones the United States would "cede this space" to its adversaries, said the letter, which was also signed by Representative Lois Frankel (Democrat-Florida), the ranking member on the House National Security, Department of State, and Related Programs Appropriations Subcommittee.
"For years, Republicans in Congress have decried what they see as a lack of U.S. credibility vis-a-vis countries like China, Russia, and Iran. Now our credibility is on the line, and it appears we will cut and run from American commitments to our partners around the world," Meeks and Frankel said.
Rubio's order exempts emergency food programs, such as those helping to feed millions in Sudan. Trump's executive order does not mention military aid, but Rubio’s message specifies that military assistance to Israel and Egypt are exempt.
There was no indication of a similar waiver for U.S. military assistance to Ukraine; however, the Biden administration accelerated the disbursement of already approved aid for Ukraine before leaving office over concerns Trump would discontinue it. There is still about $3.85 billion in congressionally authorized funding for future arms shipments to Ukraine and it is up to Trump whether or not to spend it.
The United States is the world's biggest donor, providing tens of billions of dollars annually.
With reporting by AFP and AP
Afghans Laud ICC Arrest Warrants Over Taliban's Repression Of Women
Afghan rights groups have applauded the International Criminal Court's announcement that it is seeking arrest warrants for two top Taliban officials for allegedly persecuting Afghan women and girls, an accusation the Taliban-run Foreign Ministry called "baseless."
ICC prosecutor Karim Khan said in a statement on January 23 that he has requested warrants for the Taliban's supreme leader, Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada, and the head of Afghanistan's Supreme Court, Abdul Hakim Haqqani.
Khan said based on evidence collected thus far in an investigation reopened in October 2022 there are reasonable grounds to believe Akhundzada and Haqqani "bear criminal responsibility for the crime against humanity of persecution on gender grounds."
He said his office had concluded that they are "criminally responsible for persecuting Afghan girls and women, as well as persons whom the Taliban perceived as not conforming with their ideological expectations of gender identity or expression, and persons whom the Taliban perceived as allies of girls and women."
"This is a prestigious international institution, and their decisions and actions have strong consequences.... This is a big threat to the Taliban," Mir Abdul Wahid Sadat, head of the Afghan Lawyers Association, told RFE/RL's Radio Azadi.
The alleged crimes were committed from August 15, 2021, when the Taliban seized power as U.S.-led international forces withdrew from the country, until the present day.
The Taliban-run Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the arrest warrants lacked a "legal foundation" and that it "strongly condemns and rejects these baseless accusations."
"This is a major step. The people of Afghanistan have been facing a culture of impunity for over five decades," according to Shaharzad Akbar, an Afghan rights campaigner who headed the former Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission and now runs the independent advocacy organization Rawadari.
The government has previously said it was working on a strategy and creating a suitable environment for girls' education. But it has not reported how much progress has been made or said when girls would be allowed to go to school beyond grade six.
After returning to power, the Taliban banned teenage girls from education. Since then, the Islamist group has imposed draconian bans on women's work, education, and mobility despite domestic opposition and a global outcry.
The arrest warrants came a day before International Education Day, which the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said should be noted with "a profound sense of regret and deep concern for the millions of Afghan girls who continue to be denied their fundamental right to education."
"It is a travesty and tragedy that millions of Afghan girls have been stripped of their right to education. No country has ever thrived by disempowering and leaving behind half its population. The de facto authorities must end this ban immediately and allow all Afghan girls to return to school," added Roza Otunbayeva, the UN secretary-general's special representative for Afghanistan.
Khan said in the statement that the applications for arrest warrants "recognize that Afghan women and girls as well as the LGBTQI+ community are facing an unprecedented, unconscionable, and ongoing persecution by the Taliban."
The alleged persecution entails "numerous severe deprivations of victims' fundamental rights" that are contrary to international law, the statement said. This includes the right to "physical integrity and autonomy," free movement, free expression, free assembly, and education.
Human rights groups applauded the ICC move.
Liz Evenson, international justice director at Human Rights Watch, said the Taliban's "systematic violations of women and girls' rights, including education bans, and the suppression of those speaking up for women's rights, have accelerated with complete impunity."
The warrant requests offer a pathway to accountability, Evenson said in a statement.
Khan said the requests were the first applications for arrest warrants to arise out of the investigation into the situation in Afghanistan, adding that his office soon will file further applications for other senior members of the Taliban.
A decision on whether to issue arrest warrants following requests from the prosecutor typically takes around four months.
- By Roya Musawi and
- Farangis Najibullah
Afghans In Mexico Anxious But Defiant As U.S. Shuts Down Immigration App
Yasaman crossed more than half a dozen countries on foot, bus, and boat and paid thousands of dollars to smugglers to reach Mexico.
Yasaman, an Afghan woman whose name has been changed to protect her identity, believed she was within touching distance of realizing her dream: entering the United States.
But her hopes came crashing down on January 20, when new U.S. President Donald Trump declared an emergency on the southern border with Mexico as part of a crackdown on illegal immigration.
As part of the executive order, U.S. authorities shut down the CBP One mobile app -- the only legal way for migrants to make an appointment with U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers, request asylum, and enter the country legally.
"I don't know what to do now," said Yasaman, who arrived in Mexico in November 2024. "I'm waiting [for] what Trump will decide next about migrants."
Yasaman, speaking by telephone from Mexico, said she received a notification on January 20 that read: "Existing appointments scheduled through CBP One are no longer valid."
The shutdown of the app will affect thousands of migrants, including Afghans, hoping to enter the United States legally.
Around 1 million appointments had been scheduled through CBP One since it was introduced in January 2023.
Not Happy In Brazil
Mexico has been a relatively new route for thousands of Afghan migrants seeking a new, better life in the United States.
RFE/RL contacted the United Nations refugee agency and the Mexican migration authorities to find out how many U.S.-bound Afghan migrants are currently in Mexico. We have not received a response.
An Afghan migrant who spoke to RFE/RL from the southern Mexican city of Tapachula estimated there were up to 1,500 people from Afghanistan in that city alone.
Karimullah, whose name has been changed over privacy concerns, said Afghan migrants live in rented apartments, relying on the "limited amount of money" they have brought from Afghanistan or borrow from their relatives abroad.
"Families go hungry for days while waiting for money from relatives," he said.
A former civil rights activist, Karimullah fled Afghanistan after the hard-line Taliban returned to power in August 2021.
After running out of money to pay for food and rent and as she was still waiting to get an appointment through CBP One, Yasaman got a job as a kitchen helper at a restaurant in the capital, Mexico City.
Like many other Afghan migrants in Mexico, both Karimullah and Yasaman had already been offered asylum in other safe countries -- in their case Brazil, which has issued thousands of humanitarian visas for Afghan nationals since 2021.
Asked by RFE/RL why they didn't want to stay in Brazil, where they had been given free accommodation and food, both Karimullah and Yasaman said they did not see a "good future" there due to a lack of jobs and other opportunities.
Instead, many Afghans pay money to people-smugglers to take them through Bolivia, Peru, Equador, Colombia, Panama, and other countries to reach the U.S.-Mexico border.
'Life For Immigrants Not What It Used To Be'
Some cross the border illegally. Ehsan Khan, a 26-year-old former driver from Kabul, entered the United States illegally in November 2024, hoping to get settled in the country before Trump closes the U.S. borders.
After spending two months at an immigration detention facility, Khan was released on January 11 with an electronic ankle bracelet for authorities to monitor his movements.
Speaking from San Diego by phone, Khan told RFE/RL that Afghan migrants should think twice before coming to the United States, because "the life in America for immigrants is not what it used to be."
Khan did not give details of his new life in the United States but said it isn't worth the traumatic journey he had through Honduras and Guatemala, where he said he "was beaten by thieves who demanded money" and witnessed his best friend drown in the sea.
"I saw my friend screaming for help as he drowned and I looked helplessly. I wanted to jump into the water, but I knew I couldn't swim. His parents often call me from Kabul and ask about him, and we cry," Khan said.
Back in Mexico City, Yasaman is determined to enter the United States "by any means, legally or illegally."
"I don't have a life or home in Afghanistan to go back to," Yasaman said. "I see my future only in America."
2 U.S. Men Freed In Afghanistan In Exchange For Taliban Serving Life In California
U.S. officials and media confirmed the release of two Americans held in Afghanistan in exchange for a Taliban man imprisoned for life in California on drug and terrorism charges.
Taliban leaders on January 21 identified Khan Mohammed, who was sentenced to two life terms in 2008, as the man released from the U.S. prison “as a result of long and fruitful negotiations” between Afghanistan and the United States.
Afghanistan “views positively the actions taken by the United States that contribute to the normalization and development of relations between the two countries,” the Foreign Ministry said.
A 2008 U.S. Justice Department statement identified the released Afghan man as a member of the "Afghan Taliban sentenced to life in prison in nation’s first conviction on narco-terror charges.” He was convicted following a seven-day jury trial and sentenced to two life terms.
The Afghan ministry did not identify the two Americans set free, but CNN, AP, and family members identified them as Ryan Corbett and William McKenty.
A member of the new administration of President Donald Trump told news agencies that the deal was brokered by President Joe Biden’s team before he left office on January 20.
No mention was made of two other U.S. citizens being held by Taliban -- George Glezmann and Mahmood Habibi, both of whom have been held since 2022.
Details of the negotiations were not revealed. The United States, like most countries, does not recognize the Taliban -- which captured Kabul in mid-2021 -- as the legitimate rulers of Afghanistan.
“The Trump administration will continue to demand the release of all Americans held by the Taliban, especially in light of the billions of dollars in U.S. aid they’ve received in recent years," White House National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes said in a statement on January 21.
The Corbett family thanked both Biden and Trump in a statement and said, “Our hearts are filled with overwhelming gratitude and praise to God for sustaining Ryan’s life and bringing him back home after what has been the most challenging and uncertain 894 days of our lives.”
The family also thanked officials in Qatar “for their vital role in facilitating" the release of Corbett. Qatar has often hosted negotiations between Washington and the Taliban.
On January 13, the White House said Biden had spoken to the families of three Americans held by the Taliban in Afghanistan since 2022 and promised to do everything possible to bring them home as he headed into the final days of his presidency.
Aid worker Corbett, 40, and Habibi, 37 -- who led the Afghan Aviation Authority under the previous Afghan government -- were detained separately in August 2022, a year after the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan from the Western-backed government.
Glezmann, now 66, was detained later in 2022 while visiting as a tourist.
No information was immediately known about the reasons for McKenty’s presence in Afghanistan or how long he had been held there.
With reporting by AP, CNN, and The New York Times
- By RFE/RL's Radio Azadi and
- Will Tizard
Afghans Cleared For U.S. Evacuation Fear Trump Reversal Could Allow Taliban To 'Kill Us'
Afghans cleared for resettlement in the United States are fearful that an executive order signed by President Donald Trump will put them at grave risk. Some 1,660 Afghan refugees have been pulled from scheduled flights, according to a resettlement organization. Afghans who helped U.S. forces before the Taliban seized control in 2021, along with family members of American soldiers, are among the group of refugees who were approved for immigration to the United States until Trump signed the order.
- By Firuza Azizi
'Lives Are In Danger': Afghans Devastated By Trump's Refugee Resettlement Suspension
Humayun Bayat was looking forward to moving to the United States in early February to begin a new chapter in his life.
The young Afghan man, who worked for the U.S. military in Afghanistan, was happy to leave Pakistan, where he has lived for the past three years after fleeing the Taliban takeover of neighboring Afghanistan in 2021.
“Our lives are in danger,” he told RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi after his flight to the United States was canceled due to U.S. President Donald Trump’s suspension of U.S. refugee programs on January 20.
“We won't be able to go to Afghanistan either because I worked against the Taliban,” Bayat said.
Jamshid Azizi, who also worked for U.S. forces during the nearly 20-year U.S.-led war in Afghanistan, also voiced distress after his planned flight to the United States early next month was canceled.
“We face death in Afghanistan,” Azizi said. “We want President Donald Trump not to leave us in limbo.”
Bayat and Azizi are among some 1,660 Afghans who were chosen to move to the United States over the next three months after Washington cleared them for resettlement.
But their flights were canceled after Trump, soon after taking the oath of office on January 20, suspended the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) “until the further entry into the United States of refugees aligns with the interests of the United States.”
“Afghans and advocates are panicking,” Shawn VanDiver, a member of the Afghan Evacuation Association, a coalition of U.S. veterans and advocacy groups, told Reuters.
“We hope they will reconsider,” VanDiver said of his organization’s attempts to persuade the new administration to change its views on the issue.
“We are very sad,” an Afghan physician who worked for the U.S. Embassy in Kabul told Radio Azadi.
The doctor said his case was “pending” days before his previously planned departure to the United States on January 15.
“We are facing a lot of problems here,” he added.
The United States resettled more than 200,000 Afghans in the country following its final withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021. Most of them worked with the U.S.-led international military coalition or were involved in projects funded by Washington and its allies.
Fears Of Deadly Retribution
But thousands of Afghans are still waiting in Pakistan, Gulf states, and Europe for their cases to be resolved.
“I don’t care much about myself. It is my children and wife I am more worried about,” one Afghan man living in Pakistan told Radio Azadi. He requested anonymity, citing security concerns.
He said he fears deadly retribution from the Taliban because the Islamist group ruling Afghanistan considers anyone who supported the U.S. invasion of the country an “infidel.”
An Afghan woman also living in Pakistan said refugees there were facing tremendous pressure. Pakistani authorities have frequently harassed Afghans in apparent retaliation for the Taliban's refusal to help Islamabad against its Pakistani Taliban allies.
“I hope we receive international support for a safe and stable future,” she said.
Written by RFE/RL’s Abubakar Siddique based on reporting by Radio Azadi correspondent Firuza Azizi
- By Todd Prince
Trump Again Vows To End Ukraine War, Warns Taliban About Weapons
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has again said he would get Ukraine and Russia to stop fighting while also saying he would demand that the Taliban return billions of dollars of U.S. military equipment left behind in Afghanistan in 2021.
“I will end the war in Ukraine, I will stop the chaos in the Middle East, and I will prevent World War III from happening,” Trump told a packed crowd at the Capital One Arena in Washington on January 19, a day before his inauguration, without giving details.
Analysts say it will be difficult to end the war in Ukraine in the near term because Russian President Vladimir Putin believes he is winning and has no incentive to stop the fighting.
Trump’s rally, his first in the city since January 6, 2021, when his supporters stormed the Capitol, featured a rundown of items he has claimed he would achieve during the next four years at home and abroad, including strengthening the military.
Trump will be sworn in as the 47th president on January 20. The ceremony will be held inside the Capitol for the first time in 40 years due to freezing temperatures.
During his speech, Trump claimed the United States has been giving the Taliban in Afghanistan “billions of dollars a year” and that he will end that unless the extremist group gives back billions in U.S. equipment.
“And I say, if we're going to pay billions of dollars a year, tell them we're not going to give them the money unless they give back our military equipment,” Trump said.
The United States left about $7 billion in military equipment in Afghanistan when it chaotically pulled out in August 2021 as the Taliban retook control of the capital, Kabul.
The Taliban takeover has led to a downward economic spiral with more than half of the country’s population of some 42 million people in need of humanitarian assistance, such as food, according to USAID, the U.S. development arm.
The United States has given more than $2.1 billion in humanitarian funding to Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover, according to USAID.
Since taking power, the Taliban has been condemned by Western leaders, international organizations, and activists for brutal human rights violations, especially against women and girls.
Note: This article has been amended to provide a more accurate estimate of the size of Afghanistan's population.
- By RFE/RL
Biden Speaks To Families Of Taliban's U.S. Prisoners, Vows To Press For Release
The White House said President Joe Biden spoke to the families of three Americans held by the Taliban in Afghanistan since 2022 and promised to do everything possible to bring them home as he heads into the final days of his presidency.
Biden "spoke with the families of Ryan Corbett, George Glezmann, and Mahmood Habibi -- Americans unjustly held by the Taliban in Afghanistan since 2022 -- this afternoon," the White House said on January 12.
"The president and the families discussed the U.S. government's continuing efforts to reunite these three Americans with their families. The president emphasized his administration's commitment to the cause of bringing home Americans held hostage and wrongfully detained overseas," the statement added.
Reuters, citing a source familiar with the matter, last week reported that the administration has been negotiating with the Taliban since at least July concerning a U.S. offer to release the three Americans in exchange for Muhammad Rahim al-Afghani, a high-profile prisoner held at the Guantanamo Bay detention center.
Afghani has been held at Guantanamo Bay since 2008 and is believed to have been an associate of Osama bin Laden, the late founder of the Al-Qaeda terrorist group.
Aid worker Corbett, 40, and Habibi, 37 -- who led the Afghan Aviation Authority under the previous Afghan government -- were detained separately in August 2022, a year after the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan from the Western-backed government. Glezmann, now 66, was detained later in 2022 while visiting as a tourist.
Family members who spoke with Biden said they were told no deal had yet been reached.
Habibi's brother, Ahmad Habibi, was on the call, and welcomed the president's efforts.
"President Biden was very clear in telling us that he would not trade Rahim if the Taliban do not let my brother go," he told Reuters.
"He said he would not leave him behind. My family is very grateful that he is standing up for my brother."
Reuters quoted sources as saying the Taliban, which has not acknowledged holding Habibi, had countered with a proposal to exchange Glezmann and Corbett for Rahim and two other people.
A U.S. Senate report called Rahim an "Al-Qaeda facilitator" and said he was arrested in Pakistan in June 2007 and turned over to the CIA the next month and eventually transferred to Guantanamo Bay.
Biden, who will depart the White House on January 20, last week ordered the release of 11 Guantanamo detainees to Oman, reducing the prison population there to 15.
Biden's administration has been working to reduce the number of detainees, with a goal of closing down the prison, which is on a U.S. naval base on the island of Cuba. At its peak in 2003, it held an estimated 680 prisoners.
President George W. Bush opened the prison in January 2002 to hold international terrorism suspects following the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington.
With reporting by Reuters
Is 2025 The Year Chinese Investments Take Off In Afghanistan?
After a year of unprecedented trade and breaking ground on high-profile mining projects in 2024, there's new momentum for Beijing's growing role in Afghanistan and deepening ties with the Taliban. But can the hard-line group finally calm China's longstanding security concerns and unleash a wave of much-needed investment?
Is 2025 The Year That Chinese Investments Take Off In Afghanistan?
After a year of unprecedented trade and breaking ground on high-profile mining projects in 2024, there's new momentum for Beijing's growing role in Afghanistan and deepening ties with the Taliban. But can the hard-line group finally calm China's longstanding security concerns and unleash a wave of much-needed investment?
Malala Condemns Taliban On Women’s Rights, Assails ‘Gender Apartheid’
ISLAMABAD -- Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai urged Muslim leaders not to "legitimize" the Taliban-led government in Afghanistan and instead to "raise their voices" and "use [their] power" against the militant group's curbs on women and girls' education.
"Do not legitimize them," Yousafzai said on January 12, as she addressed the second and final day of a Muslim-led summit on girls’ education in her home country, Pakistan.
"Simply put, the Taliban do not see women as human beings. They cloak their crimes in cultural and religious justification," Yousafzai, 27, told the gathering in Islamabad.
She also urged Muslim leaders and global politicians to support efforts to make what has been called “gender apartheid” a crime under international law.
The event marked a full circle for Yousafzai, who was shot in 2012 by the Pakistani Taliban in the northwestern valley of Swat because she had campaigned for girls' education.
Following the conference, organizers released a 17-point "Islamabad Declaration," including an agreement "emphasizing that girls' education is not only a religious obligation but also an urgent societal necessity."
"It is a fundamental right safeguarded by divine laws, mandated by Islamic teaching, reinforced by international chargers and well-established by national constitutions," it said.
The rights of girls and women – especially access to education – is often a controversial subject in conservative Islamic nations. Domestic activists and international organizations have pressed leaders to promote and protect such rights, and observers in recent years have noted improvements in many, but not all, countries.
Some 47 Muslim-majority nations and organizations sent representatives to the event, but it was shunned by the Afghan Taliban, whom activists say are among the world's leading violators of the rights of women and girls.
Ahead of the gathering, Yousafzai said she would focus her speech on Afghanistan -- which is now the only nation among the 57 members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation that bans women's education. The ban has been widely assailed by the international community and many people inside Afghanistan.
"I will speak about protecting rights for all girls to go to school, and why leaders must hold the Taliban accountable for their crimes against Afghan women & girls," she wrote on X.
The attack on Yousafzai, who had become a target for her campaign for girls' education, sent shock waves across Pakistan and provoked international outrage.
Yousafzai, who was 15 at the time, survived after months of treatment at home and abroad and became an international figure, winning 2014 Nobel Peace Prize.
Roza Otunbayeva, head of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), urged leaders of Islamic nations to protect the rights of Afghan girls.
"I really call on all these ministers...who came from all over the world, to offer scholarships, to have online education, to have all sorts of education for them. This is the task of the day," she said during a panel discussion.
'Crime Against Humanity'
Yousafzai's father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, criticized Muslim countries for what he described as being "either silent, complicit, or apologetic" toward the Taliban's curtailing of Afghan women's rights.
Echoing condemnations by the United Nations, which has labeled the Taliban’s treatment of women "gender apartheid," Ziauddin Yousafzai told RFE/RL that "the international community, especially Muslim countries, should call the [government in Kabul] an apartheid regime."
He said the Taliban-led administration's curb on girls and women's rights is a "crime against humanity."
No Taliban representatives were present among participants of the two-day conference that brought together ministers and education officials from dozens of Muslim-majority countries, backed by the Muslim World League.
A senior Taliban diplomat in Islamabad told RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal that "so far, Kabul has not told us anything about this event."
Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, Pakistan's education minister, said, “No one from the Afghan government was at the conference," but that Taliban leaders were formally invited to the event.
The Taliban government banned teenage girls from education soon after returning to power in August 2021.
Since then, the Islamist group has imposed draconian bans on women’s work, education, and mobility despite domestic opposition and a global outcry.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said in his opening statement that preventing girls from receiving an education is "tantamount to denying their voice" and restricting their choices.
"The Muslim world, including Pakistan, faces significant challenges in ensuring equitable access to education for girls," Sharif said.
Muhammad al-Issa, a Saudi cleric and secretary-general of the Muslim World League, who organized the event with the Pakistani government, said, "The entire Muslim world has agreed that girls' education is important."
"Those who say that girls’ education is un-Islamic are wrong," he added.
With reporting by AFP
As Land Mines Kill More Afghans, Deminers Face Funding Crisis
Shah Agha is one of more than 100,000 Afghans living with injuries caused by land mines. He lost his leg to a mine during the anti-Soviet war in the 1980s in his native Kunduz Province in northern Afghanistan. In 2015, another unexploded weapon injured him again.
"My life is miserable," he told RFE/RL's Radio Azadi. "I am always in need of help."
Noor, who goes by only one name, lost both his legs to a mine blast. The Kabul resident says disabled Afghans cannot access education, jobs, or even move freely.
"Both our society and the government do little to give us our rights," he said.
Agha and Noor are among the hundreds of Afghans killed and maimed every year by land mines left behind during more than four decades of war.
Mine-clearing agencies in Afghanistan, one of the most mine-infested countries globally, now fear an even larger number of Afghans will soon become victims of land mines.
Calls To End Aid
They say the clearing of killer munitions that still litter large swaths of Afghanistan could soon stop amid calls to end aid to the country ruled by the extremist Taliban group.
Ahead of his inauguration this month, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and his allies have repeatedly criticized Washington's assistance to Afghanistan.
The United States is the leading donor for humanitarian operations in Afghanistan since the Taliban returned to power in the country after the final U.S. military withdrawal from the country in August 2021.
"Deaths and injuries, especially among children and women, will increase," Shahabuddin Hakimi, head of the Mine Detection Center (MDC), an Afghan demining NGO, told Radio Azadi.
Since 1989, over 45,000 Afghans have been killed by land mines, according to the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS). Deminers have so far cleared over 3,000 square kilometers of some 14 million pieces of unexploded ordnance, including 764,000 antipersonnel mines and more than 33,460 anti-vehicle mines.
Casualties 'Set To Increase'
UNMAS estimates land mines still threaten more than 1,700 communities spread across Afghanistan, where over 1,200 square kilometers of territory still needs to be cleared of unexploded munitions.
Hakimi said that a decline in funding has forced the MDC to cease nearly 80 percent of its operations during the past year.
He says the lack of demining has already increased the number casualties from land mines to 60 per month. In previous years, Afghans suffered an average of 50 mine-related casualties per month -- one of the highest rates in the world.
"These casualties are set to increase this year as refugees return from Iran and Pakistan and internally displaced populations return to their homes," Hakimi said.
An estimated 2 million Afghans have been forced to return from neighboring Pakistan and Iran, which have been hosting millions of Afghans since the decadelong Soviet invasion of their country that began in December 1979.
The end of fighting after the Taliban's return to power has prompted hundreds of thousands more displaced Afghans to return to their homes across the country.
Last year, 455 Afghan civilians were killed or injured by 234 land mine blasts, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross. These include 359 children, indicating they constitute nearly 80 percent of the victims of explosive hazards.
"Currently, mine action is among the most underfunded sectors in Afghanistan, said a spokesperson of the HALO Trust, a British charity and one of the leading demining groups in Afghanistan."[The country] no longer has the resources needed to stem the problem."
The spokesperson said that, over the past two years, funding for mine action has halved, forcing demining groups to dramatically reduce their workforce.
Today, only 3,000 of the 15,000 Afghan deminers working before the Taliban returned to power are still clearing dangerous explosives. According to the HALO Trust, more than 40 percent of Afghan deminers lost their jobs over the past two years.
"The country is facing a paradox of reduced donor support and increase in humanitarian need and rising poverty," the spokesperson said.
Humanitarian Crisis
According to the UN, Afghanistan has one of the largest humanitarian crises in the world, with more than half of its 40 million population in need of assistance.
Yet the Taliban's restrictions on women and new humanitarian crises elsewhere have prompted Western donors to cut aid to the country.
Kabul lost all its development assistance, which funded most of its government expenses after the Taliban toppled the pro-Western Afghan Republic.
The country is now in danger of losing more humanitarian aid. On January 7, Trump accused President Joe Biden of paying "billions of dollars to essentially the Taliban in Afghanistan."
In a letter to the U.S. president-elect on January 2, Republican Congressman Tim Burchett urged him to stop cash aid to Afghanistan, some of which he alleged was going to the Taliban.
Taliban Absent As Pakistan PM Opens Summit On Girls' Education
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said preventing girls from receiving an education is “tantamount to denying their voice” as he opened a major Muslim-led summit on the subject that remains sensitive in the Islamic world.
The gathering attracted Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai – who is scheduled to speak on January 12 – while it was apparently shunned by Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers, who activists say are among the world’s leading violators of the rights of women and girls.
"The Muslim world, including Pakistan, faces significant challenges in ensuring equitable access to education for girls," Sharif said at the opening of the event in Islamabad.
"Denying education to girls is tantamount to denying their voice and their choice, while depriving them of their right to a bright future," he added.
On January 11, no Taliban representatives were present among participants from some 50 Muslim-majority countries when the two-day conference opened in the Pakistani capital.
A senior Taliban diplomat in Islamabad told RFE/RL’s Radio Mashaal that “so far, Kabul has not told us anything about this event.”
Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, Pakistan's education minister, said, “No one from the Afghan government was at the conference," but they were formally invited to the event.
The Taliban government banned teenage girls from education soon after returning to power in August 2021.
Since then, the Islamist group has imposed draconian education on women’s work, education, and mobility despite domestic opposition and a global outcry.
It is now the only nation among the 57 members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation that bans women’s education. The ban has been widely opposed by Afghans and internationally.
"The entire Muslim world has agreed that girls' education is important,” said Muhammad al-Issa, a Saudi cleric and secretary-general of the Muslim World League, who organized the event with the Pakistani government.
“Those who say that girls' education is un-Islamic are wrong," he added.
Nobel laureate Yousafzai wrote on X ahead if the conference that “leaders must hold the Taliban accountable for their crimes against Afghan women and girls.”
In 2012, Pakistani Taliban militants shot Malala in the northwestern valley of Swat because she campaigned for girls' education.
The Taliban banned women’s education despite promising to allow it while it negotiated a peace agreement with the United States.
Senior Taliban government leaders, who are Sunni Deobandi clerics, have adopted a "fringe opinion" of Islamic Shari'a law to enforce the ban on the education of teenage girls and women.
Pakistan has also faced criticism for violation of the rights of girls and women in the country, particularly in rural areas. But poverty, lack of infrastructure, and cultural issues have also hampered the educational system.
“Millions of Pakistani children do not attend school, and those that do must deal with absent teachers and poor learning environments, among other things,” the U.S.-based Wilson Center said in a report.
Deportation Of Afghans Sparks Rare Outrage In Tajikistan
Tamkin Mehrabuddin and her sister were preparing lunch in their home in Tajikistan when police officers knocked on their door.
The two Afghan women were ordered to accompany them to a police station in Dushanbe, the Tajik capital. Instead, they were driven for nearly three hours to the border and forced back to their homeland.
“My sister was crying, and we pleaded with the officers not to send us back to Afghanistan,” said Mehrabuddin, whose brother was also deported from Tajikistan.
The 24-year-old said she and her sister both had valid visas to reside in Tajikistan, adding that their residency documents were confiscated by the police the day before their deportation.
Mehrabuddin and her sister are among the scores of Afghans who have been deported in recent weeks from neighboring Tajikistan, which is home to some 10,000 Afghans. Her brother, who lived separately from them, was also deported.
The deportations have triggered anger in Tajikistan, an authoritarian country where criticism of the authorities is rare.
No Official Reason
Many of the deportees were abruptly summoned by the police and expelled without any due process, despite having temporary visas or documents showing they have been registered as refugees.
The move has triggered fear that they could face possible retribution in their homeland, which has been under the Taliban’s repressive rule since 2021, although no country has formally recognized the extremist group's government.
Afghanistan’s consulate in Tajikistan’s eastern city of Khorugh, which represents the Taliban-led administration in Kabul, said that around 60 Afghans were expelled from Tajikistan in December.
“They had their documents in order, and I don’t know what the reason for their expulsion was,” said a consulate officer who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Nusratullo Mahmadzoda, a spokesperson for Tajikistan’s Interior Ministry, said he was not aware of the deportations, adding that foreigners are deported if they “do not follow immigration rules.”
But the Dushanbe office of the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said at least 37 of the Afghans deported had refugee status.
Police Harassment
Tajikistan, which shares a border of around 1,300 kilometers with Afghanistan, is home to documented and undocumented Afghan migrants and refugees.
Some have lived in the Central Asian country for decades, while others fled there after the Western-backed Afghan government collapsed and the Taliban seized power in 2021.
Most of Tajikistan’s Afghan community live in the town of Vahdat, which is on the outskirts of Dushanbe.
Tajikistan is seen by many Afghans as a transit country from where they hope to reach the West.
“My sister and I lived in Dushanbe for two years before moving [abroad],” said Leena, a 25-year-old Afghan who only gave her first name.
Leena worked as a waitress in a coffee shop but said she “did not see any future” for herself in Tajikistan.
"Tajik police often harass Afghans to extort bribes," she said. "A police officer in our neighborhood in Dushanbe knew where I lived and would blackmail me with a deportation threat to get money."
Roya Hafizi moved to Tajikistan with her husband and five young children in 2020. Last month, her husband and several other Afghans were taken to a police station.
“Later my husband called me from the border to say that he was being deported,” said Hafizi. “My husband is an ordinary worker. We don’t harm anyone and haven’t committed any crime.”
Hafizi’s husband was the family’s sole breadwinner, and his deportation has left the family with no source of income to buy food or pay rent.
Tajikistan usually does not provide income support and welfare benefits to refugees and migrants.
Possible Retribution
In a statement issued on December 7, the UNHCR office in Dushanbe expressed “grave concern” over the forcible return of Afghans and urged the Tajik government to halt the deportations and uphold its “obligations to protect those fleeing persecution.”
Some Tajik have taken to social media to criticize the move.
Tajikistan and Afghanistan have deep linguistic, cultural, and historical ties, and Tajiks have called on the authorities to better protect Afghans.
Social media users have been particularly critical of the deportation of Mehrabuddin, a graduate of the Technological University in Dushanbe.
On social media, Mehrabuddin had recently complained of “psychological abuse” at the hands of her husband, an Afghan who was living in Tajikistan. Her allegations prompted the Tajik authorities to launch an investigation.
Some Tajiks on social media said Mehrabuddin could face torture or death in Afghanistan, where the Taliban has severely curtailed women’s rights.
Other Tajik social media users recalled how tens of thousands of Tajiks took refuge in Afghanistan during Tajikistan’s civil war in the 1990s.
Taliban officials did not respond to RFE/RL’s request for comment.
Tajikistan had previously come under criticism by the UNHCR for deporting scores of Afghans in 2021 and 2022.
The latest expulsions come as Afghan migrants and refugees are under increased pressure in neighboring countries.
Iran has vowed to deport millions of Afghans in the Islamic republic. Pakistan, meanwhile, has deported nearly 800,000 since late 2023.
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