National

As Afghanistan faces multiple crises, UN aid chief Martin Griffiths warned Monday that six million Afghans are at risk of famine and urged the international community to step up aid, saying that more than $700 million is needed to help Afghans through the winter months.

Driving the news: Over a year since the Taliban retook Afghanistan, Afghans have faced an imploding economy, a deteriorating human rights situation and a disastrous humanitarian situation.

Even before the Taliban takeover, Afghanistan was facing the costs of a severe drought that devastated livestock and decimated crops.

The big picture: About 24 million people — more than half the country's population — are in need of humanitarian assistance, with 19 million people contending with "acute levels" of food insecurity, Griffiths said in remarks to the UN Security Council.

About six million people are at risk of famine and roughly 3 million children are acutely malnourished.

More than $600 million in aid is urgently needed to prepare for winter, including for repairing and upgrading shelters, as well as providing warm clothes and blankets.

Another $154 million is required to pre-position food and other supplies before the winter weather cuts off access to certain areas, he added.

"We are up against time. These particular contributions are needed within the next three months," Griffiths told the UNSC.

What they're saying: "Afghanistan is a humanitarian crisis. But it’s not only that. It’s an economic crisis. It’s a climate crisis. It’s a hunger crisis. It’s a financial crisis. But it is not a hopeless crisis," Griffiths said.

"Poverty is deepening, the population is still growing, and the de facto authorities have no budget to invest in their own future. It’s clear to us — I’m sure it’s clear to all of us — that some development support needs to be restarted," Griffiths added.

"The humanitarian community has indeed stayed and delivered for the people of Afghanistan and continues to do so. It’s imperative that the international community, as reflected here, continues to do the same," he said, adding that, "Afghanistan’s de facto authorities must do their part.

"The people of Afghanistan are still there. They have shown incredible resilience over the decades and in this last year. Our task is to help them to prosper, to flourish, and to be safe."

UN warns six million Afghans at risk of famine amid deepening crises

"We are up against time. These particular contributions are needed within the next three months."

A displaced person camp in Nahr Shahi district of Balkh province, southern Afghanistan in Feb. 2022. Photo: Kawa Basharat/Xinhua via Getty Images

Afghanistan

China is becoming the most formidable rival America has faced, and the risk of confrontation with Russia, North Korea or Iran still looms. Authoritarians are rising, the chaotic Afghanistan exit revealed the limits of U.S. power, and the pandemic, climate change and other critical challenges continue to pose grave threats.

World

A bombing at a mosque in the Afghan capital Kabul on Wednesday, during evening prayers, killed at least 21 people and injured dozens of others, AP reports. 

Driving the news: No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, which wounded several children and killed a prominent cleric.

The explosion appeared to be carried out by a suicide bomber, according to an eyewitness, who is a resident of the city's Kher Khanna neighborhood, where the Siddiquiya Mosque is located, per AP.

Taliban government spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid condemned the attack, writing on Twitter that the "perpetrators of such crimes will be ... punished for their actions."

The big picture: The Islamic State group's local affiliate has increased attacks on Afghanistan in the months since the Taliban retook control of the country.

The Islamic State last week claimed responsibility for an attack that killed a prominent Taliban cleric at his religious center in Kabul, per AP.

An explosion in April at a packed mosque in Kabul also killed at least 10 people and injured dozens of others.

State of play: This week marks one year since the Taliban retook control of the country. Since then, the Afghan people have borne the brunt of a collapsed economy, worsening humanitarian crisis and deteriorating human rights situation, Axios previously reported.

Go deeper... One year on: Afghanistan in anguish

 Editor's note: This article has been updated with new details throughout.

Bombing at mosque in Kabul kills at least 21

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.

Afghans pray at a grave of victims, after burial ceremony in a cemetery on the outskirts of Kabul on August 18, 2022

Afghans pray at a grave of victims after a burial ceremony in the outskirts of Kabul on August 18. Photo: Wakil Kohsar/AFP via Getty Images

The Biden administration is developing a portal to facilitate and simplify the reunification of Afghans with family members left behind in their Taliban-controlled country, three people familiar with the matter tell Axios. 

Why it matters: The portal would centralize what has been a piecemeal, case-by-case effort to reunify the thousands of Afghan families separated during the chaos that ensued after the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan a year ago. 

What we're watching: Currently, family reunifications are typically initiated by family members via email with the help of nonprofit groups and State Department liaisons who collect and verify documents individually. 

Once launched, the State Department-run portal would become a central location where family members could upload information through a streamlined process.   

The user will enter their own status on the website, which will then instruct the user to fill out the right form to enable their relative to access the pipeline for entry into the U.S., one administration official told Axios. 

The Biden administration is also considering waiving the $535 fee associated with filing an I-130 form, which allows a U.S. citizen to petition for a relative to come into the country. 

The big picture: Thousands of Afghan families were separated in the race to escape the country's collapse following the Taliban's seizure of Kabul. While many were evacuated to the U.S. and other countries, tens of thousands more were left behind. 

Immediate family members of Afghans relocated to the U.S. through the resettlement effort known as Operation Allies Welcome are being strongly considered for parole, according to a DHS spokesperson.

Immediate family of U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents, former locally employed staff members in Embassy Kabul and some approved Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) applicants are also favored for parole. 

By the numbers: The Biden administration has brought more than 81,000 Afghans to the U.S. over the past year.

There are 74,000 Afghans at various stages of the SIV application process — most of whom are still in Afghanistan. There are also 40,000 Afghans still in their home country waiting for an answer to their request for humanitarian parole.

Of the 1,400 Afghan children who arrived in the U.S. without their parents, more than 1,200 have been placed with a sponsor or close family member. 

What they're saying: "AfghanEvac has been advocating for the family reunification portal," Shawn VanDiver, founder of the AfghanEvac Coalition, which represents over 200 organizations, told Axios. "We haven't met resistance on it. We really want to see any fees associated with reunification be waived. It should cost Afghans nothing to have their family reunified." 

Scoop: Biden administration developing Afghan family reunification portal

The portal would centralize what has a been a piecemeal, case-by-case effort.

Afghan refugees with U.S. navy service member

Afghan refugees receive instructions from a U.S. service member as they disembark from an aircraft in Rota, Spain, on Aug. 31, 2021. Photo: Cristina Quicler/AFP via Getty Images

President Biden has made the COVID-19 crisis and a post-Trump return to national unity and traditional democratic ideals his top priorities. From vaccinations to stimulus to schools, Biden is seeking bipartisan compromise while showing a willingness to use executive authority and bare Democratic majorities in the U.S. House and Senate to implement his policies. Republican leaders are navigating deep party divisions over if and how to move beyond former President Trump.

Politics & Policy

Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) on Tuesday warned Americans not to allow Republicans to "pretend" that the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan wasn't "set in motion" by former President Trump and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Why it matters: This week marks one year since the Taliban retook control of Afghanistan, an event that kick-started a decline in President Biden's polling numbers and was seized by Republicans as a defining issue.

The White House plans to circulate a new memo defending the withdrawal and arguing that the Trump administration was responsible for the pullout after striking a deal with the Taliban in 2020 to evacuate the U.S. from the region by May 2021, Axios' Alayna Treene reports.

Meanwhile, Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee are crafting plans to subpoena State Department officials over Biden's withdrawal if they win the majority in the midterms.

What they're saying: "Do not let my colleagues pretend today that Trump and Pompeo didn’t set in motion the Afghanistan withdrawal. They did," Kinzinger tweeted on Tuesday.

"I knew Pompeo in the House. He was a hawk on Afghanistan until Trump. He knew better, he owns this as well," he added.

"Trump, Pompeo and Biden are all to blame."

The other side: Pompeo responded to the criticism in a tweet on Thursday, saying that Kinzinger, "repeatedly asked me for job in Trump Admin (Air Force Sec, Amb), and for wife."

"Now attacks our Afghan plan that saw no US fatalities/no Taliban takeover/no Americans left behind. Adam, I enjoyed our work in Congress. What’s happened to you? YOU should know better," he added.

Go deeper: White House to circulate Afghanistan memo defending U.S. withdrawal

Editor's note: This story was updated with Pompeo's response.

Kinzinger: Trump and Pompeo set Afghanistan withdrawal "in motion"

"I knew Pompeo in the House. He was a hawk on Afghanistan until Trump."

Adam Kinzinger speaks during a Jan. 6 select committee hearing on July 21. Photo: Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Axios World

Zalmay Khalilzad was tasked by two U.S. presidents with negotiating an orderly U.S. exit from Afghanistan. Instead, one year ago, Kabul collapsed, the U.S. mounted a frantic evacuation, and the Taliban took total control.

What he's saying: "It's very unfortunate that we couldn't get a political agreement before the Taliban moved in," Khalilzad tells Axios in a phone interview. 

Flashback: There was still a glimmer of hope for a power-sharing deal, he argues, until Aug. 15, 2021. 

The Taliban had agreed to halt its advance outside Kabul and meet a delegation of senior Afghan politicians, including former President Hamid Karzai. But when President Ashraf Ghani fled, Khalilzad says, he left a vacuum.

The Taliban initially offered to let the U.S. military secure Kabul temporarily, Khalilzad says. Then-CENTCOM Commander Gen. Kenneth McKenzie later testified that there was no "formal offer" from the Taliban, and "we did not have the resources to undertake that mission.”

Instead, Taliban fighters swept into the city. The militant group later formed a government made up entirely of its own hardliners. The U.S. was out and Khalilzad's mission was over. He left the government last October.

The backstory: An Afghan-born veteran diplomat, Khalilzad was named by Donald Trump as special representative for Afghanistan reconciliation in 2018 and retained by President Biden. 

Both presidents wanted out of Afghanistan. While Khalilzad says he viewed the U.S troop presence as its primary leverage over the Taliban, both presidents saw it as a "burden."

Khalilzad says he and others argued internally that Biden should leave troops in Afghanistan until certain conditions were met — in particular, some form of intra-Afghan agreement on the future governance of the country. 

"I said, 'No, I cannot guarantee that there will be a political settlement, but it will provide us leverage with the Taliban,'" Khalilzad recalls. "The president thought we might never get to an agreement and we might get stuck there."

Between the lines: Biden's pessimism was hardly unreasonable, given the lack of progress in intra-Afghan talks prior to the fall of Kabul.

Now in power, the Taliban are held hostage by some of its more hardline elements, Khalilzad contends. 

For example, he says most senior Talibs believe girls should be allowed an education, and yet the Taliban government has offered a series of shifting explanations as to why schools can't yet be reopened.

"They emphasize unity because they don't want to fight each other, but at the same time there are clear differences inside," Khalilzad says. "That makes it frustrating dealing with them, because... all factions have to agree before they can give a definitive response."

Until the group moves toward a more inclusive government and society, it won't gain broad acceptance domestically or recognition and sanctions relief internationally, Khalilzad argues.

That means the U.S. still has leverage in Afghanistan, Khalilzad insists. And now the administration isn't operating on a tight timetable or worried about risks to U.S. troops. 

"The question is whether there can be a tradeoff — what we would do in exchange for what they do."

What to watch: Khalilzad says his understanding is that the U.S. has signaled to the Taliban that it would be open to talks if two conditions are met: that American detainee Mark Frerichs be released and that schools be reopened to girls. 

A State Department spokesperson told Axios those were "two key priorities of ours" and that "a lack of progress will hinder improvement in our relationship with the Taliban."

Khalilzad notes that even if relations do improve, negotiating with the Taliban will be sensitive politically. 

Worth noting: Khalilzad says the harboring of al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri by at least some elements of the Taliban was a "clear violation" of the Doha Agreement, which he negotiated and signed in 2020. 

He also notes that the sudden Taliban takeover last August left the sides without a clear roadmap for implementing some aspects of the deal.

Meanwhile, Ghani used one of his first interviews from exile in the UAE to blame Khalilzad for the fall of Kabul. Speaking to Axios, Khalilzad calls the comments "unfortunate" and questions how much "self-reflection" Ghani has done. 

Interview: Former U.S. envoy Khalilzad on leaving Afghanistan to the Taliban

"The president thought we might get stuck there."

Khalilzad (L) alongside then-Taliban political leader Abdul Ghani Baradar at the signing of the Doha Accords in 2020. Photo: Giuseppe Cacace/AFP via Getty

One year on: Afghanistan in anguish

On Aug. 15, 2021, "the Afghanistan we knew was gone and it wasn't going to come back."

Photo illustration of Afghans that were living in a camp for displaced people 

Photo illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Photo: Ami Vitale/Getty Images

Fox News Sunday-9 21 29 Am - 9 23 18 Am-2022-08-14

A year since the start of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, retired general and Fox News analyst Jack Keane told "Fox News Sunday" conditions in Afghanistan have deteriorated to their level before the U.S. invasion in 2001.

Driving the news: The Taliban's retaking of Afghanistan has resulted in economic devastation and the return of the group's draconian policies, which deny women the right to work and attend school, Keane said.

"They are just shutting down all the normal cultural aspirations that a nation or people would have," he said.

"We went to Afghanistan to stop the Taliban from providing sanctuary to the al-Qaeda, from which the attack on the United States took place," Keane said. 

"And what did this decision get us?" he added of the withdrawal. "It got us the Taliban in charge again ... providing sanctuary to al-Qaeda."

The big picture: While the Biden administration touted the killing of al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri this month as an example of the U.S.' "over-the-horizon" counterterrorism capabilities, Keane saw the situation differently.

Al-Zawahiri's killing "resurrected the fact that he is living in a Taliban house ... where senior Taliban leaders are in residence, and obviously they are protecting the al-Qaeda leader as well as his organization," Keane said.

"So the fact is, Afghanistan is a sanctuary for terrorism. The very reason we went there, the very reason we stayed there for 20 years, to ensure that terrorists did not rise again to attack the American people, and we are right back where we started."

Retired general says U.S. “right back where we started” in Afghanistan

"The fact is, Afghanistan is a sanctuary for terrorism."

The Biden administration left key decisions on how to evacuate civilians from Kabul until the final hours before the city fell to the Taliban, a new report from Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee claims. 

Why it matters: President Biden acknowledged after the chaotic U.S. withdrawal that his administration had not anticipated that Kabul would fall so quickly, but insisted that "we planned for every contingency." The report, released ahead of the one-year anniversary of Kabul's collapse, contends that delays in that planning proved costly.

In a lengthy statement to Axios, National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson claimed the report was "riddled with inaccurate characterizations, cherry-picked information, and false claims."

Between the lines: The investigation was conducted only by the committee's Republican minority, which is clearly intent on highlighting Biden's failures on Afghanistan.

It was led by Ryan Browne, a former CNN national security reporter who works as the lead Afghanistan investigator for the committee's minority.

Because the White House and State Department were largely uncooperative, the report notes, the main sources are public records, a separate investigation by the U.S. military, and the accounts of whistleblowers.

Zoom in: According to the report, the U.S. military was ordered to begin planning for a civilian evacuation operation in April, four days before Biden announced the unconditional withdrawal. 

Multiple tabletop exercises were held to review the possible scenarios, including one on Aug. 6, the week before Kabul fell, which senior administration officials attended.

But one of the generals tasked with planning the evacuation, Brig. Gen. Farrell J. Sullivan, told Army investigators “there seemed to be a disconnect between what we were seeing on the ground and the urgency [State Department officials] were displaying." That lack of urgency would be a continual frustration among military leaders, the report claims. 

In the White House statement, Watson rebuts that characterization: "We did extensive contingency planning throughout the spring and summer of 2021 and pre-positioned troops in the region, which enabled us to facilitate the evacuation of more than 120,000 people."

Behind the scenes: On the afternoon of Aug. 14 — hours before the Taliban took Kabul — the National Security Council convened a meeting during which officials discussed who should be given priority for evacuation. 

One key decision was to task the State Department with establishing transit hubs in third countries where evacuees could be temporarily housed. Those agreements with countries like Qatar, reached on the fly as the evacuation got underway, were crucial to the evacuation effort.

Such decisions could have been taken much earlier, the report contends.

Aug. 14 was also the day the administration formally decided to proceed with the civilian evacuation. The military was prepared to move earlier, the report claims. 

At the time, Biden blamed the decision not to begin the evacuations sooner in part on the Afghan government, which he said was worried about a "crisis of confidence."

The White House statement blames the collapse in morale among Afghan troops, and the abbreviated timeline to withdraw U.S. forces, on the deal former President Trump struck with the Taliban in 2020.

According to the committee's report, even when the evacuation effort was at its peak, there were just 36 consular personnel at the airport in Kabul, leaving soldiers without training on visa matters to triage the tens of thousands of people arriving at the airport. 

The report attributes that to the administration's "failure to plan." The White House statement notes that the Trump administration "made no preparations to evacuate our Afghan allies," while the Biden administration "surged resources" into that effort.

One decision that still has not been made, the report claims, is whether and how to evacuate U.S.-trained Afghan commandos "who possess sensitive knowledge about U.S military operations."

The report also contrasts the relatively optimistic public statements from the State Department and Pentagon ahead of and during the evacuation with events on the ground and discussions behind the scenes.

In particular, it contends that while administration spokespeople were stressing that the Taliban was cooperating with the evacuation effort, military personnel on the ground were witnessing "beatings, shootings, harassment" and the intentional blocking of American citizens by the militants. 

A committee staffer who worked on the report told Axios they were struck by the "disconnect" between public statements describing an "efficient" evacuation and the chaos actually unfolding at the airport.

"You'd have to believe that either the spokespeople were not receiving these reports, or the spin had just gotten out of control," the staffer who worked on the report told Axios.

White House left Kabul evacuation decisions to final hours, GOP probe claims

The White House said the report is "riddled with inaccurate characterizations, cherry-picked information, and false claims."

Afghans await evacuation at the Kabul airport. Photo: Wakil Kohsar/AFP via Getty 

Afghanistan withdrawal

One year after the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, the Taliban has remained in power with a promise, so far undelivered, to govern differently than it did before the American invasion in 2001.

In focus: These photos offer a glimpse into how life has changed for the millions of Afghans at home and abroad. 

A girl studying in a secret school at an undisclosed location in Afghanistan on July 25, 2022. Girls and young women have been deprived of the chance of education since the Taliban returned to power. Photo: Daniel Leal/AFP  via Getty Images

Relocated to the U.S. after the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, Mohammad Khisraw Noori, seen here on February 24, 2022, and his family were evacuated from Afghanistan as the Taliban took over and threatened those who worked with the Americans and the Afghan government. Photo: Melina Mara/The Washington Post via Getty Images

A woman feeding pigeons outside of a mosque. 

A  woman feeds pigeons outside Shah-e-Do Shamshira mosque in Kabul on August 7, 2022. Photo: Lillian Suwanrumpha/AFP via Getty Images

A man selling sunglasses in the marketplace. 

A  vendor sells sunglasses in a market in Kabul on August 7, 2022. Photo: Lillian Suwanrumpha/AFP via Getty Images

Men eating and watching television in a restaurant. 

Afghan men watch television in a restaurant in Kabul on August 9, 2022. Photo Wakil Kohsar/AFP via Getty Images

A woman wearing a burqa, seated on the side of the road. 

A woman sits on the side of the road in Kabul on July 26, 2022. Photo: Daniel Leal/AFP via Getty Images

A female news presenter wearing a hijab and face cover. 

Tolo News presenter Sonia Niazi presents the news at a Tolo TV station in Kabul on May 22, 2022. Women presenters on Afghanistan's leading news channels went on air with their faces covered, a day after defying a Taliban order to conceal their appearance on television. Photo: Wakil Kohsar/AFP via Getty Images

Khalid Payenda, prays at his family home in Woodbridge, Virginia, on February 25, 2022, before starting his shift as an Uber driver. Khalid, who just finished a class he co-taught at Georgetown University on Afghanistan, was the Minister for Finance in Afghanistan in 2018. Photo: Astrid Riecken for The Washington Post via Getty Images

Children play marbles on a hilltop in Kabul, Afghanistan on August 4, 2022. Photo: by Daniel Leal/AFP via Getty Images

Afghanistan: A day in the life, one year later

A glimpse into how life has changed for the millions of Afghans at home and abroad.

An Afghan woman walks with schoolgirls going to their primary school in Kabul. 

An Afghan woman walks with schoolgirls going to their primary school in Kabul on August 9, 2022. (Photo by  Wakil Kohsar/AFP via Getty Images)

A women-led protest on Saturday in Kabul was broken up when Taliban fighters fired guns into the air, chased and beat the marchers, AFP reports.

Driving the news: Roughly 40 women chanted “bread, work and freedom” while they marched in front of the education ministry building, per AFP. The demonstration was held a few days before the first anniversary of the Taliban seizing control of Afghanistan last August.

The latest: Some marchers held a banner that read “15 August is a black day,” referring to the upcoming anniversary. 

The marchers also chanted: “Justice! Justice! We’re fed up with ignorance,” per the AFP. 

Taliban fighters chased protesters and beat them with the butts of their rifles.

The big picture: Since the calamitous U.S. withdrawal from the country last year, the Taliban have wiped away rights women gained during the two decades the U.S. occupied the country. 

The Taliban said in the aftermath they would honor women's rights, but only within the "frameworks" of Islamic law.

Taliban beat women protesting in Afghanistan as anniversary nears

The marchers chanted: “Justice! Justice! We’re fed up with ignorance."

All Afghanistan stories