In Afghanistan’s northeastern Badakhshan province, dozens of excavators operate day and night to extract gold from the mountains where villagers and their livestock once roamed.
Thousands of miners are deployed across the Shiwa area, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) northeast of the provincial capital Faizabad, extracting gold for investors nationwide.
Some residents in the area have profited from the gold rush, only to regret it later, such as farmer Muhammad Amin.
“Before, the river was deep, the water was clean,” said the 74-year-old from Pul-e-Ziri Ban valley.
Since mining got underway, “the water of the river is not drinkable; you can’t even wash your body with that water”, he told AFP.
With tears in his eyes, Amin said the grass along the riverbank “has all gone” and farming is no longer possible due to “the wind and dust”.
Now he can only feed up to 15 goats, compared with as many as 40 previously.
Amin said he was paid half the $20,000 for which he agreed to lease his land to a mining firm that failed to fulfil a promise to restore his fields after the work stopped.
The Taliban authorities have expanded the mining sector since returning to power five years ago, aiming to tap into Afghanistan’s vast underground resources to boost state coffers.
Abdul Mateen Rahimzai, head of Badakhshan’s mines department, said they have registered “almost 650 to 700 companies, and there are thousands of people working manually”.
The World Bank said hundreds of mining contracts have been signed since 2021, with “real growth averaging 25 to 30 percent” annually according to a May report.
– ‘Better than anything else’ –
While mining has temporarily stopped in Amin’s village, not far from his home, in Gulak-Dara valley, dozens of diggers were carving into the mountainside.
With jobs scarce in Afghanistan, the area has drawn workers from across the country.
Mohammad Agha Khwaja Khail, from Kabul, has worked in mining for five years and earns 10,000 Afghanis ($150) a month loading trucks.
“It’s better than anything else… There aren’t many jobs in Kabul,” said the 21-year-old, above the din of diggers.
Shafiullah Ehsas, a father-of-five, transported his excavator hundreds of kilometres from Jalalabad about three months ago.
“In Jalalabad, the gold (mining) work hasn’t started, and it was happening in Badakhshan, so we didn’t have any other option but to bring our machinery here,” said the 32-year-old, who earns 25,000 Afghanis per month.
The Ministry of Mines and Petroleum has sought to regulate the industry, with spokesman Hamayoun Afghan saying resources “used to be extracted erratically; it wasn’t done under supervision” by the previous government.
Gold mining has accelerated in the north, the ministry spokesman said, including in neighbouring Takhar province where an Afghan company was operating with Chinese partners.
Fabrizio Foschini, a researcher at the Afghanistan Analysts Network, said during earlier decades of war “mining mainly benefited insurgent groups, including the Taliban, and local strongmen with links to corrupt government officials”.
Mining firms are now taxed 20 grams of gold per hectare per month, or the equivalent in cash, no matter their profits.
– ‘Reduced to ruins’ –
Mohammadullah Mubariz, the manager of a mining company with about a hundred labourers and 20 diggers, said the team can extract “200 to 300 grams of gold” in a week.
Despite this, he said the firm was operating at a loss because of start-up costs since April.
Rahimzai, head of the provincial mines department, said last year the government collected 112 kilograms (247 pounds) of gold in Badakhshan. According to miners who spoke to AFP, their sale price per gram was around $118.
Rahimzai said that last year, “most of the mines were not registered, and there was no system to collect the fees from them”.
He has also ordered the closure of around 225 sites that caused damage, including in the Shiwa area.
“There was a bridge there, there were shops, and there was a school. All of them were buried under floodwater, mud, and debris. The area has been completely reduced to ruins,” Rahimzai told AFP.
The provincial mining chief also pledged to tackle any corruption, and ensure the “mineral resources of Badakhshan will be utilised properly and for the benefit of the people”.
Some parts of the province remain untouched, including a few kilometres from Shiwa where herder Fazil hoped the miners would stay away.
“Because it’s a place for people, for picnics, for livestock to graze,” he told AFP, giving only his first name for security reasons.
The gold industry “doesn’t benefit the local communities here”, said the 45-year-old, who has brought his herd to the mountains each summer since childhood.
“It benefits only the powerful people.”
By Agence France-Presse
The post “Gold Rush” in Afghanistan: Taliban Mining Booms in Badakhshan. Jobs & Gold for Some, Ruined Land for Others appeared first on EURASIAN TIMES.
As Japan marks the anniversary of the 1945 atomic bombs, its leaders are pushing for a renewed debate on nuclear weapons in a challenge to the nation’s long-time pacifist stance.
Japan’s constitution renounces offensive military force, and successive governments have maintained a decades-old pledge not to possess nuclear weapons, produce them or permit their introduction into the country.
That commitment is now under pressure as East Asian neighbors — notably China — boost their military capabilities, while doubts persist about the reliability of Tokyo’s biggest security backer, the United States.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has refused to clarify whether she will maintain the stance known as the three non-nuclear principles, and Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi called last month for a “discussion without a taboo” on the subject.
In December, an unnamed senior administration official told local media in an off-the-record session suggesting that Japan should possess nuclear weapons.
The remark was widely reported by major Japanese outlets including national broadcaster NHK and Asahi Shimbun, sparking public criticism.
“If I look at it cynically, I can’t help but think that maybe she really wants to change” Japan’s anti-nuclear commitment, 82-year-old Satoshi Tanaka, a campaigner who survived the 1945 attack on Hiroshima, told AFP.
The country marked the 81st anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing on Thursday and will do the same on Sunday to commemorate the attack on Nagasaki.
The August 1945 assault by the United States killed more than 210,000 people, including many from the effects of radiation exposure.
It remains the only time that atomic weapons have been used in warfare, and was one of the last major acts of World War II.
The Takaichi administration is undertaking a major update of the national defense strategy this year in the face of China’s expanding military ambitions.
The prime minister has already lifted Japan’s self-imposed ban on weapons exports and expanded defense spending, while pushing to amend the constitution.
Those policies have drawn rebukes from China, which accuses Japan of “new militarism” and Takaichi of bending to the whims of the far right.
They have also unnerved survivors of the 1945 bombings, who have long helped shape Japan’s post-war pacifist political culture.
Tanaka, the Hiroshima survivor, expressed frustration that current political leaders like Takaichi are focusing on military capacity at the expense of diplomacy.
“There is so much talk about national security. What about building peace through diplomacy?” he said.
Despite winning the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts, they are debating whether to continue their national association as their members grow older.
As of March, Japan recognized just over 91,000 survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki attacks, down from over 164,000 a decade ago. Their average age is 86.7.
The focus has turned firmly towards the future of the non-nuclear principles, which date to 1967.
Takaichi’s supporters argue that the final clause needs to be changed to allow the United States to bring nuclear arms to Japan and ensure regional deterrence.
Hirofumi Yoshimura, head of the Japan Innovation Party, a coalition partner of Takaichi’s government, said the principle deserved discussion in the context of the US-Japan security alliance.
“Of course, we need to work toward building a world without nuclear arms,” Yoshimura told reporters on the anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing.
“But when considering how to ensure the effectiveness of extended nuclear deterrence within the framework of our alliance with the United States, I believe we should…continue to adhere to the principle of ‘neither possessing nor producing’ nuclear weapons,” he said.
“As for ‘not allowing them to be brought in,’ I do think there is some room for discussion on that point.”
Critics argue that Takaichi’s hawkish approach to defense increases the danger for Japan.
After Takaichi attended the annual ceremony in Hiroshima on Thursday, she sat down for a televised meeting with survivors.
When pressed, Takaichi declined to offer clarity on whether she might change the country’s nuclear course.
“Our nation currently adheres to the ‘three non-nuclear principles,'” she said in response to a direct question from Tanaka, without discussing what she might do next.
“That,” Tanaka told AFP on Friday, “only explains the current situation. It says nothing about the future.
“It only worries me more. I am concerned.”
By Agence France-Presse
The post Japan’s Nuclear Debate Unnerves Pacifists as Tokyo Declines to Reaffirm Non-Nuclear Principles Amid China Threat appeared first on EURASIAN TIMES.
Turkey’s foreign minister said he expected Egypt to join a joint defense agreement with regional partners designed to stabilize the region that is grappling with the Middle East war.
Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan signed the agreement on Friday against the backdrop of war between the United States and Iran, which has drawn in surrounding nations and disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea.
The war has emboldened Iran and its Houthi allies in Yemen, both of which have attacked Saudi Arabia, and a drone last month hit US assets at an Egyptian port on the Mediterranean.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told state news agency Anadolu he expected Egypt to join the “Mecca Joint Defense Agreement”, calling the country a “natural partner on all issues”.
“I believe that at the next stage Egypt will also be among us in the alliance. We already act toward one another as if we were alliance members,” he said in an interview.
“There are a few technical issues. Once these are implemented, there is no reason for Egypt not to be part of it.”
Fidan said the agreement does not target a specific country.
“There is no common threat that we have put in writing,” he said, according to the news agency.
Pakistan’s foreign ministry said Friday the pact meant an attack on any member would be regarded as an attack on all, adding it was “intended to strengthen collective deterrence”.
In the interview, Fidan said the agreement was “the most important step toward bringing lasting stability to this region”, and suggested the alliance could expand further.
“Under our president’s vision, we should not remain limited to three countries. We should grow and, if necessary, bring all countries under this umbrella,” he said.
By Agence France-Presse
The post Egypt Could Join Saudi-Turkey-Pakistan Defense Pact To Stabilize Middle East, Turkish FM Says appeared first on EURASIAN TIMES.
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