Terror attacks and armed clashes from time to time remind of the unstable situation in Afghanistan. Life there will probably never be peaceful again. Terror and fear have become an integral part of the daily life of Afghans. On the streets you can constantly see a lot of military, police, intelligence officers and militias, last year alone there were more than fifty major terrorist attacks in the country with human casu alties, and kidnappings occur regularly.
Martial Law
Life in Afghanistan (photos speak of this as well as possible) cannot be called peaceful. It seems that the country is again on the verge of chaos, but in fact this situation has persisted for about forty years. Recently, the number of civilian casu alties has been on the rise. The UN estimated that approximately 11,500 civilians were killed and wounded in 2016. In 31 out of 34 provinces, hostilities were fought with varying success.
Only for the first four months of 2017almost 100,000 ordinary Afghans were left without a roof over their heads and became refugees in their own country. In 2016, there were about 600,000 of them. Many go to Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, in the hope that the situation there is at least a little better, but more often the hopes turn out to be false. The city cannot accommodate all the refugees, and countless camps are springing up on the outskirts.
Today's situation
Unfortunately, nothing indicates an improvement in the situation in the foreseeable future: as recently as June 11, 2018, 36 people were killed in terrorist attacks, although three days earlier the Taliban had accepted the government's offer of a temporary truce. On June 4, fourteen people became victims of a terrorist attack near a university in the Afghan capital, and on May 29 of this year, the Taliban captured three districts of one of the provinces.
Another armed conflict between NATO forces and militants of various radical groups began in January 2015, that is, immediately after the withdrawal of the main contingent of NATO troops from the country. In response, the soldiers of the US Army (most of the remaining - 10,8 thousand out of almost 13 thousand NATO soldiers - they were) began to carry out active measures to neutralize the militants.
History of the conflict
The years-long confrontation that destroyed peaceful life in Afghanistan began with the April 1978 revolution. As a result of a military coup, a pro-Soviet socialist regime was established in the country. Arg Royal Palace, where President Mohammed Daoud wasfamily, the main ministries and departments, was fired from tank guns.
The revolution was formally communist, but the attempts of the new local leadership to force the establishment of a model of government, completely copied from the USSR, without taking into account Afghan features, led to the emergence of strong opposition to the government. Soviet troops were subsequently brought in to fight the opposition.
One of the stages of the conflict in Afghanistan was the civil war of 1989-1992, during which government troops, supported by Soviet soldiers, fought against the Mujahideen, supported by the United States, Pakistan and some other states.
For less than a decade, Afghanistan has been recovering from war. The confrontation broke out with renewed vigor in 2001. NATO forces, backed by the new government, turned against the Islamist Taliban, which controlled much of the country. The withdrawal of troops began in the summer of 2011. But in fact, the war was only formally ended, as the events of early 2015 proved.
Armed formations
Life in Afghanistan today is very dependent on the province. After the US military operation, allegedly successfully completed by the withdrawal of NATO troops in 2011, local leaders of the armed formations continue to rule in most areas. Case in point: the seventy-year-old Afghan warlord Ili Gulbuddin Hekmatyar was nicknamed the “Butcher of Kabul” for shelling the Afghan capital in the mid-nineties. Until recently, she was listed in the blackUN list of terrorists.
In the poorly controlled and just as poorly visible Afghan territories, the confrontation with the Taliban and active hostilities of about twenty more international terrorist groups, including Al-Qaeda and ISIS, continue. No one knows yet what a peaceful Afghanistan should look like, because each group has its own opinion on this matter. Four decades of bloody war clearly demonstrate that the problem cannot be solved by military means.
Life of ordinary people
It is clear that against the backdrop of ongoing war and all-consuming fear, the life of people in Afghanistan is far from being easy. In Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, it is very dirty, and the river of the same name that flows through the city is also a sewer where all the garbage is thrown. The water is not just cloudy, but generally black. The city center is almost completely destroyed, but in some places you can find the remains of old buildings. Reviews of determined tourists who have visited the country are simply appalling.
Many locals don't know their age and have never attended school. And those who are lucky enough to get access to knowledge are in no hurry to use it. There are no grades in local schools, but there are special people with sticks with which they beat the wards if they are guilty of something. Especially a lot of work at the end of each break, because the students simply do not want to return to classes.
Many locals remember the "Soviet occupiers" with gratitude and curse NATO troops. All schools andhospitals left from the times of the USSR. In Kabul there is even a district built up with Khrushchevs, which is called Teply Stan, just like one of the microdistricts of Moscow. Life in Afghanistan, they say, was better then. American soldiers and NATO troops control only a few major cities, and the Taliban are already fifteen kilometers from Kabul.
The vast majority of goods sold in local stores are imported from neighboring Pakistan or other countries. There is practically no legal economy. Ten billion out of twelve of the state budget is foreign aid. But the shadow budget is ten times larger than the official one. Its basis is heroin.
Main heroin producer
Afghanistan produces 150 billion single doses of heroin annually. Two-thirds goes to the local market, the rest is exported. On the streets of Kabul, heroin is smoked openly. The largest users of drugs are the European Union and Russia, where about 10 billion doses end up every year. According to the UN, more than 10% of the population, that is, about 2.5-3 million Afghans, are involved in drug production. The organizers receive up to 100 billion dollars a year, but local farmers can only be content with 70 dollars a year.
He althcare
The US mission has found that the he alth situation in Afghanistan is worse than in Somalia or Sierra Leone. Maternal mortality is 1,700 women per 100,000 population, and every fifth child does not live to be five years old. About half of the people in the countrysuffer from mental disorders, and among 80% of women, depression is a normal phenomenon. About 6 million people (mostly rural population) are deprived of any medical care due to the catastrophic state of infrastructure.
The average life expectancy in Afghanistan is around 45 years. Many die as a result of armed clashes and terrorist attacks. But if we discard this factor, life expectancy in Afghanistan is extremely low. Up to 30% of the population is affected by tuberculosis, and more than 70 thousand new cases of the disease are registered annually. Typhoid fever is constantly recorded in the country, cholera outbreaks are noted from time to time, and dysentery is a common thing. Malaria is widespread throughout the country, and in some areas up to 75% of the population suffer from STDs (in cities, the figure is lower - 10-13% of the population). Ninety percent of the population is infected with helminths.
Women's rights in Afghanistan
Life in Afghanistan is especially hard for women. From the age of eight, girls are forbidden to appear on the street without being accompanied by a husband or male relative and without a traditional costume that completely covers the body and face. You can not wear shoes with heels, study and work, talk loudly on the streets, attend any events. Girls are forcibly given in marriage and locked up in the walls of the house without the opportunity to go outside. Many cannot receive medical care because there are sorely lacking female doctors. Richer families solve this problem by moving to neighboring Pakistan, butIn practice, only the elite have such an opportunity.
