The militant Islamist Taliban claim to have conquered the last Afghan province not yet under their control, Pandjir.

This was announced by the Islamist spokesman, Sabiullah Mujahid, in a statement published on Monday.

There was initially no official information from the resistance fighters in Pandjir.

The spokesman for the National Resistance Front (NRF), Fahim Dashti, was killed in the fighting on Monday night, as confirmed by several sources in the resistance front.

A second NRF spokesman shared a tweet claiming the Taliban's claim about the capture of Punjir was false.

He himself wrote that the fight would continue until the aggressors were removed from the country.

A Taliban spokesman shared a picture supposedly showing Taliban fighters outside the governor's seat in the provincial capital Basarak.

Conquest would be great success

Conquering Punjir would be a great success for the Islamists.

They could not take the province during their first rule, which was due to the bitter resistance of the Northern Alliance and the geographical location: the entrance to the valley is narrow and easy to defend.

Several "rebels" had been beaten in Pandjir and the rest had fled, the Taliban said.

The people of Pandjir are given full assurance that they will not be discriminated against and that "you are all our brothers and we will serve one country and a common goal," the Taliban statement said.

With these recent victories, Afghanistan had come completely out of the "vortex of war" and the people would lead a peaceful life in the future.

The Pandjir question was originally intended to be resolved through negotiation.

On Tuesday, however, fighting began when, according to Dashti, the Taliban attacked checkpoints at the valley entrance.

Since then the fighting had intensified every day.

The Islamists were evidently advancing further into the valley.

The leader of the NRF, Akhmad Massud, had shown himself ready to negotiate a solution on Monday night in order to end the fighting.

He was ready to end the war immediately if the Taliban ended their attacks in Punjir.

The NRF endeavors to resolve conflicts with the Taliban peacefully.

Meanwhile, the Taliban made security guarantees for humanitarian workers, according to the UN.

The Islamists had given assurances in talks that aid workers would be able to move freely and safely in the country, a UN spokesman said on Sunday.

Taliban spokesman Suhail Schaheen said on Twitter that the Taliban pledged "cooperation and the provision of the necessary facilities" to the UN.

After the radical Islamic Taliban came to power, around half of the Afghan population is at risk of a humanitarian catastrophe, according to the UN.

Afghanistan was previously heavily dependent on humanitarian aid.

Around 40 percent of the gross domestic product is financed from abroad.

In the newspaper Rheinische Post, Federal Development Minister Gerd Müller (CSU) announced an increase in German support for aid organizations of the UN and other "experienced" agencies "in order to prevent a famine and maintain the food supply in Afghanistan."

In addition, the federal government wants to support a planned airlift of the World Health Organization (WHO) to Afghanistan to supply hospitals with drugs and vaccines.

He had discussed this with WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said Müller.

The Taliban spokesman Sabihullah Mujahid had previously reiterated his request for support from the federal government: "We want Germany to support us in the humanitarian field and help as far as the German government can," he said on Sunday at "Bild Live".

Merkel for negotiations

Germany has made the continuation of aid payments to Afghanistan dependent on compliance with human rights in the country.

While the federal government still does not recognize the Taliban diplomatically, Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) affirmed on Sunday that Germany must negotiate with the Islamists about the possibility of local staff to leave the country.

"We just have to talk to the Taliban about how we can get people who have worked for Germany further out of the country and bring them to safety," she said on the sidelines of a visit to the areas in North Rhine-Westphalia affected by the flood disaster .

Taliban spokesman Mujahid confirmed on "Bild Live" that local workers were not in danger.

"We have not caused any problems for the Afghans who have worked for Germany or any other country, and we will not," he said.

Since taking power in mid-August, the Taliban have repeatedly given assurances that their rule will be different from their time in power in the 1990s.

Back then, women were forced to stay at home, most entertainment was banned, and penalties such as stoning and public executions were imposed.

Unlike then, the Taliban now want to allow women to attend universities - but only with face covering, the niqab, and separately from men.