A year after the return of the Taliban, where is Afghanistan?

• After the early departure of US troops from Afghanistan, the Taliban took control of the country.

  The capture of Kabul on August 15 marks their coming to power.

• Since then, Afghanistan, plunged into economic and humanitarian crises, has found itself on the edge of a precipice.

  Millions of Afghans live below the poverty line.

• 20 Minutes

  takes stock of Afghanistan, one year after the return of the Taliban.

The early departure of US-led foreign forces allowed the Taliban to seize power on August 15, 2021 in Afghanistan.

Their victory ended the fighting, offering some respite to a country ravaged by two decades of violence.

But the humanitarian crisis quickly worsened.

The country of 38 million people finds itself caught in a whirlwind of financial, economic and humanitarian crises.

A year after the return of the Taliban to Kabul, the organization of the Islamist group is therefore beginning to fracture.

takes stock of these one year of Taliban regime, which is struggling to cope with the significant difficulties facing the country.

“Symbolic” political advances

Has the Taliban model evolved as much as it claims?

Shortly after taking power, the Taliban demanded a new mode of governance.

They seek to be less conservative than when they first took power (1996-2001).

Now girls can attend primary school, female journalists interview government officials, and all Afghans have access to the internet and social media.

So many measures that would have been unthinkable during the last takeover of the Taliban.

These advances remain "symbolic", according to many observers.

They are above all a means of coaxing the West, whose foreign aid has been financing Afghanistan for twenty years, and of not cutting itself off from the world financial system.

The new Afghan authorities have also refused Western demands for an inclusive government.

Recently, the assassination of the leader of Al-Qaeda in Kabul has revived doubts about the Taliban's commitment to breaking away from extremist groups.

Great economic distress

After two decades of coveting control of the country, the Taliban rule the nation at its most ruined.

Afghanistan was already in great economic distress.

With the arrival of the Taliban, foreign aid, which perfused the country and represented 45% of GDP, suddenly stopped.

The United States froze $7 billion in central bank assets and the banking sector collapsed.

Millions of Afghans now live below the poverty line.

Strangled, families had to choose between selling their young daughters or their organs.

Poverty, exacerbated by drought and rising prices since the invasion of Ukraine, is reaching into the upper echelons of the ruling organization.

Taliban guards receive their salaries late.

Many return to their villages or to Pakistan to find other work.

The Taliban have tried to diversify their sources of financing, by exploiting coal.

But these attempts sparked struggles within the movement.

Growing tensions risk aggravating the Taliban's conservative retreat. 

The Taliban resume classes 

Veterans, former bombers and members of the Taliban organization share the school benches with young Afghans.

Since taking power, organizations have been modernizing.

Technology and public relations are making their way into the daily lives of civil servants in the capital.

To be able to "serve their country", several hundred young fighters from the Islamist group have resumed their studies, on their own initiative or at the instigation of their leaders.

Dawat University, in western Kabul, for example, has about 200 Taliban enrolled in courses in economics-management, computer science, law or political science, among its few thousand students.

All follow the courses, obligatory, of religious education.

These young Taliban seem more open to women's rights than the leadership of the Islamist movement, which has largely reduced their place in the public space and their access to education.

Afghan refugees in France

Twelve after leaving Afghanistan, thousands of refugees are still waiting to see their families again.

As soon as Kabul was taken on August 15, 2021, thousands of people were evacuated en masse in chaos at the capital's airport.

Since August 2021, 4,340 people, including 4,105 Afghans, have benefited from repatriation and evacuation operations.

Since then, they have struggled to bring their families to France by asserting their right to family reunification.

Evacuations from Kabul to France continue slowly, in the shadow of the Ukrainian crisis.

This is how France was quickly singled out by many NGOs for the “double standard” observed in the reception of Afghan and Ukrainian refugees.

After calling in August 2021 for “protection against irregular migratory flows” generated by the coming to power of the Taliban, France showed an unconditional welcome to the Ukrainian population. 

Our file on Afghanistan

The integration of Afghan refugees, many of whom are still in precarious accommodation, should be an important subject in the months to come.

But, for the moment, the associations are concentrating on the people who could not be evacuated.

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