Pence visits Afghanistan, says ‘seeing real progress on the ground’

India fears that a Taliban-controlled Afghanistan would benefit Pakistan. The government is trying to protect its strategic interests.

At least one person has been killed in an explosion in Kabul. The largely Shiite neighborhood has previously been targeted by attacks by the Islamic State-Khorasan group.

By imposing new restrictions on the media and female actors, the Taliban have once again reaffirmed their misogynistic ideology, rights advocates have said.

Human Rights Watch says that more than 100 former Afghan security personnel have disappeared or been killed by the Taliban since they came to power in August. The actual number could be much higher than that.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told the Foreign Affairs Committee that the previous presidency left Joe Biden little choice but to complete the withdrawal. Republicans called it "an unmitigated disaster."

For almost a decade, international forces in Mali have been trying to help fight Islamist groups that threatened to take over the country in 2012. But today, the government still only controls the capital and a small area around it. DW's Fred Muvunyi reports.

More Afghans facing extreme poverty are turning to opium production as a means of survival. Despite promises to the contrary, the Taliban are unlikely to oppose cultivation of the narcotic cash crop.

A new report by Amnesty international has documented war crimes and atrocities committed during the fall of the internationally backed Afghan government in August.

It's been four months since the Taliban swept to power in Afghanistan, something they did faster than anyone anticipated. Since August, they have had to make a rapid transition to running the day-to-day business of a struggling state. From Kabul to the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar and the mountainous Wardak province, our team have witnessed the grim reality of Taliban rule. FRANCE 24's senior reporters Catherine Norris Trent and Roméo Langlois bring us this exclusive full-length documentary.

What's it really like inside the new Afghanistan? Four months after the fall of Kabul to the Taliban, FRANCE 24 went to the capital and beyond to speak to citizens from all walks of life. What they heard was a mix: relief that the guns have gone quiet but worry over the prospect of a bleak winter, with more than half the population facing acute food shortages. Meanwhile, Afghanistan remains isolated on the world stage and its new rulers have yet to let women return to school and work. The Taliban also still have to prove that they can run a country.

Pakistan hosted a conference of Muslim countries pledging financial assistance to stave off "chaos" in Afghanistan. They vowed to unlock frozen aid funds and set up a humanitarian trust.

The German foreign minister said more needs to be done to help Afghanistan in the wake of the Taliban takeover. Some 15,000 people which Germany vowed to take in are still stranded there.