Opium cultivation is up by a third in Afghanistan as the country faces a severe economic crisis, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime said on Tuesday.
The new figures appear to confirm fears the Taliban will fail to bring production to heel, and since August last year trafficking of the drug abroad has continued without interruption.
The group, which seized Afghanistan in August 2021, outlawed all cultivation of the opium poppy and all narcotics in April, but exempted this year's crop.
Production is predominantly in the south, where in some areas a fifth of arable land is used to grow the opium poppy. The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime found cultivation is increasing in the north of the country too.
UN investigators used satellite imagery to survey Afghanistan’s crop fields after the Taliban took control of the country.
Farmers are facing tough choices in choosing which crop to plant for next year as the country's economy continues to fail. November is traditionally planting time for the season ahead, and few other crops such as wheat and vegetables can provide the income opium can.
The April ban sent prices of opium soaring this year. Afghan farmers tripled their income from $425 million in 2021 to $1.4 billion in 2022, the report found.
Ghada Waly, the UNODC's executive director, said the international community needs to do more to help the Afghan people and tackle drug trafficking around the world.
“Afghan farmers are trapped in the illicit opiate economy, while seizure events around Afghanistan suggest that opiate trafficking continues unabated,” she said.
Poppies are an attractive crop for farmers as they are pest and drought resistant, and can be stored for long periods.
Used to make street drug heroin and a range of medical prescription opioids, opium is created by scraping poppy seed pods for a milky fluid, which is then dried.
Afghanistan supplies 80 per cent of global opiate demand.
An explosion in opium production
Opium production dropped dramatically in 2001 after the last Taliban government banned it in July 2000. The UN celebrated the “near total success of the ban” in Taliban controlled areas at the time.
But the halt in growing the crop was short-lived, and since the US-led invasion in late 2001, the amount of land used for cultivation has crept up, reaching 233,000 hectares today.
The Taliban used to make a significant income from poppy cultivation. The report said the practice has “long represented a lucrative potential source of financing in Afghanistan, including in the past for non-state actors such as the Taliban.”
The April ban, however, may not be all good news. The dire economic situation in the country may mean a well-implemented ban like that of 2001 pushes farmers and others dependent on the trade to other illicit activities, or forces the cultivation abroad to other nations, the UNODC warned.
About 20 million Afghans are believed to be facing acute food insecurity as they brace for a second winter under Taliban rule.
Restrictions on the freedoms of women and girls, and the discovery that Al Qaeda leader Ayman Al Zawahiri was living in a Kabul safe house before he was killed by US forces, have deepened western concerns about Taliban rule.
G7 countries said in May that they expected a “swift and full implementation” of the ban on opium production.
The official ban “should lead to concrete efforts addressing illegal drugs trafficking and financing of terrorism,” the group’s foreign ministers said.
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
500 People from Gaza enter France
115 Special programme for artists
25 Evacuation of injured and sick
The Greatest Royal Rumble card as it stands
50-man Royal Rumble - names entered so far include Braun Strowman, Daniel Bryan, Kurt Angle, Big Show, Kane, Chris Jericho, The New Day and Elias
Universal Championship Brock Lesnar (champion) v Roman Reigns in a steel cage match
WWE World Heavyweight Championship AJ Styles (champion) v Shinsuke Nakamura
Intercontinental Championship Seth Rollins (champion) v The Miz v Finn Balor v Samoa Joe
United States Championship Jeff Hardy (champion) v Jinder Mahal
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Raw Tag Team Championship (currently vacant) Cesaro and Sheamus v Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt
Casket match The Undertaker v Chris Jericho
Singles match John Cena v Triple H
Cruiserweight Championship Cedric Alexander v tba
Thor: Ragnarok
Dir: Taika Waititi
Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Cate Blanchett, Jeff Goldblum, Mark Ruffalo, Tessa Thompson
Four stars
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Terror attacks in Paris, November 13, 2015
- At 9.16pm, three suicide attackers killed one person outside the Atade de France during a foootball match between France and Germany
- At 9.25pm, three attackers opened fire on restaurants and cafes over 20 minutes, killing 39 people
- Shortly after 9.40pm, three other attackers launched a three-hour raid on the Bataclan, in which 1,500 people had gathered to watch a rock concert. In total, 90 people were killed
- Salah Abdeslam, the only survivor of the terrorists, did not directly participate in the attacks, thought to be due to a technical glitch in his suicide vest
- He fled to Belgium and was involved in attacks on Brussels in March 2016. He is serving a life sentence in France
Moonfall
Director: Rolan Emmerich
Stars: Patrick Wilson, Halle Berry
Rating: 3/5
The Africa Institute 101
Housed on the same site as the original Africa Hall, which first hosted an Arab-African Symposium in 1976, the newly renovated building will be home to a think tank and postgraduate studies hub (it will offer master’s and PhD programmes). The centre will focus on both the historical and contemporary links between Africa and the Gulf, and will serve as a meeting place for conferences, symposia, lectures, film screenings, plays, musical performances and more. In fact, today it is hosting a symposium – 5-plus-1: Rethinking Abstraction that will look at the six decades of Frank Bowling’s career, as well as those of his contemporaries that invested social, cultural and personal meaning into abstraction.
It Was Just an Accident
Director: Jafar Panahi
Stars: Vahid Mobasseri, Mariam Afshari, Ebrahim Azizi, Hadis Pakbaten, Majid Panahi, Mohamad Ali Elyasmehr
Rating: 4/5
The specs
Engine: 2-litre or 3-litre 4Motion all-wheel-drive Power: 250Nm (2-litre); 340 (3-litre) Torque: 450Nm Transmission: 8-speed automatic Starting price: From Dh212,000 On sale: Now
The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre twin-turbo flat-six
Power: 480hp at 6,500rpm
Torque: 570Nm from 2,300-5,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed dual-clutch auto
Fuel consumption: 10.4L/100km
Price: from Dh547,600
On sale: now
Company profile
Name: Tharb
Started: December 2016
Founder: Eisa Alsubousi
Based: Abu Dhabi
Sector: Luxury leather goods
Initial investment: Dh150,000 from personal savings
Napoleon
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360Vuz PROFILE
Date started: January 2017
Founder: Khaled Zaatarah
Based: Dubai and Los Angeles
Sector: Technology
Size: 21 employees
Funding: $7 million
Investors: Shorooq Partners, KBW Ventures, Vision Ventures, Hala Ventures, 500Startups, Plug and Play, Magnus Olsson, Samih Toukan, Jonathan Labin
Company%20Profile
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Dates for the diary
To mark Bodytree’s 10th anniversary, the coming season will be filled with celebratory activities:
- September 21 Anyone interested in becoming a certified yoga instructor can sign up for a 250-hour course in Yoga Teacher Training with Jacquelene Sadek. It begins on September 21 and will take place over the course of six weekends.
- October 18 to 21 International yoga instructor, Yogi Nora, will be visiting Bodytree and offering classes.
- October 26 to November 4 International pilates instructor Courtney Miller will be on hand at the studio, offering classes.
- November 9 Bodytree is hosting a party to celebrate turning 10, and everyone is invited. Expect a day full of free classes on the grounds of the studio.
- December 11 Yogeswari, an advanced certified Jivamukti teacher, will be visiting the studio.
- February 2, 2018 Bodytree will host its 4th annual yoga market.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The five pillars of Islam
The biog
Family: He is the youngest of five brothers, of whom two are dentists.
Celebrities he worked on: Fabio Canavaro, Lojain Omran, RedOne, Saber Al Rabai.
Where he works: Liberty Dental Clinic
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The biog
Year of birth: 1988
Place of birth: Baghdad
Education: PhD student and co-researcher at Greifswald University, Germany
Hobbies: Ping Pong, swimming, reading
