Author: Himalaya Post

MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan – After his wheat crop failed and wells dried up, Ghulam Abbas sold his animals and joined thousands of other farmers migrating to cities as Afghanistan’s worst drought in living memory ravages the war-torn country. A huge shortfall in snow and rain across much of the country over the normally wet colder months decimated the winter harvest, threatening the already precarious livelihoods of millions of farmers and sparking warnings of severe food shortages. Like hundreds of farming families in Charkint village in the normally fertile northern province of Balkh, Abbas, 45, has moved with 11 family members to the provincial capital Mazar-i-Sharif to find work. “I don’t remember a drought as severe as this year’s,” Abbas, who has been a farmer for more than three decades, told AFP. “We never had to leave our village or sell our animals because of a drought in the past.” As dry conditions and high temperatures persist, there are growing concerns about the spring and summer crops that will be harvested later this year. Afghanistan’s 2018 wheat harvest is already expected to be the lowest since at least 2011, according to the Famine Early Warning Systems Network, set up by USAID in 1985. Faced with an estimated shortfall of 2.5 million tonnes of wheat this year, more than two million people could become “severely food insecure” and would be in “desperate...

Ghazni [Afghanistan] –  More than 100 people were killed and 133 injured as hundreds of Taliban militants launched an attack in Afghanistan’s city of Ghazni since August 10. The clashes are still going on. Of the deceased, at least 90 were either military or law enforcement personnel, while civilians accounted for 13 of the deaths, reported Sputnik. The first reports of the attacks surfaced on Friday, with local media reporting heavy losses for the Taliban, having lost over 100 militants. Tolo News reports that Afghanistan’s Army Chief of Staff Mohammad Sharif Yaftali is slated to arrive in the province later today to take charge of the situation. 203 Tander Military Corps personnel have confirmed that the clashes were still ongoing, with the Taliban setting the Independent Election Commission offices ablaze, while also blocking the Kabul-Kandahar Highway. Foreign troops have extended assistance along with air support in the fight against the militants....