GHAZNI, Afghanistan: The rescue this summer of dozens of Afghan youths destined to be trained as Taliban fighters has spotlighted how entrenched poverty is fueling a renewable supply of child soldiers to endlessly replenish the insurgents’ ranks.
Afghan forces freed almost 40 children during multiple raids near the Pakistani border. Officials said traffickers working with the Taliban had recruited the boys, some as young as four, from poor families by promising to provide them with a religious education.
In reality they were set to be indoctrinated by hard-line mullahs in Pakistan and receive military training to carry out attacks inside war-torn Afghanistan, authorities said.
The use of child soldiers by all sides in the Afghan conflict is well documented, including in pro-government security forces, where the practice of “bacha bazi,” or child sex slavery, is said to be institutionalized.
But the incidents this summer in southeastern Ghazni province illustrated a practice the Afghan government and rights groups have long accused the Taliban of: kidnapping children to indoctrinate as fighters at madrassas in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
In a recent speech charting US strategy in Afghanistan, President Donald Trump vowed, among other things, to “dry up” militant recruitment.
But experts say poverty is a significant driving factor, with parents unable to provide for their children delivering them, often unknowingly, into the hands of abusers and extremists.
AFP spoke recently with several of the children rescued at an orphanage in southeastern Ghazni province, where they had been placed as officials tried to track down their parents.
“They talked to my father and he had no objection,” said nine-year-old Nabiullah, sobbing as he recalled being taken from his home by recruiters.
Another child, who told AFP he was eight, said: “Two Taliban came saying they wanted to take us to a madrassa in Quetta. I didn’t know more until the men were arrested.”
Officials said they had saved the children, most aged between four and 14, from what Mohammad Aref Wahidi, deputy governor of Ghazni, described as “kidnapping gangs” taking them to Pakistan.
The children were “given drugs by their abductors that made them dizzy and confused,” provincial police chief Mohammad Mustafa Mayar told AFP, adding that among those freed were 13 youngsters allegedly trained as suicide bombers.
They were later paraded in front of media, with many crying as they stood beside the traffickers.
Afghan elders have denied they intentionally send youngsters to join the Taliban’s nearly 16-year insurgency.
“I admit that children are being sent for religious studies in Pakistani madrassas, but I don’t think they are trained to become suicide bombers,” Hajji Mohammad Sharif, a tribal elder from Paktika province which borders Ghazni, told AFP.
The insurgents also deny the claims.
But Afghan authorities routinely report intercepting child soldiers, and Human Rights Watch issued an extensive report on the issue last year, stating that indoctrination begins as young as six.
“According to relatives of boys recruited by the Taliban, by the time they are 13, Taliban-educated children have learned military skills including use of firearms, and the production and deployment of IEDs,” the report said.
For Ahmad Shaheer, an expert on Pakistani madrassas at Al-Azhar University in Cairo, poverty is the tinder.
“Many poor families hand over their children to strangers to be trained in Pakistani madrassas because they can’t afford to pay for their education,” he told AFP.
The HRW report noted the poverty-driven trend has also been increasing at madrassas in Afghanistan, particularly in Kunduz province, and said the Taliban refuses to return children once the parents figure out what is going on.
In June this year officials in Kunduz said they had detained an 11-year-old boy who intended to attack police after being taught at a local madrassa that government forces were a legitimate target as they were either “infidels or serving the infidels.”
In his speech last month, Trump said the US was “not nation-building again. We are killing terrorists,” and placed responsibility for Afghan society squarely on Afghans.
But absolute poverty in the country is increasing, according to a report issued by the World Bank and the Afghan government in May this year, which said that 39 percent of Afghans are unable to meet their basic needs.
That suggests the trend noted by Shaheer and HRW could continue.
Shaheer estimates that 10,000-20,000 Afghan children have passed through Pakistani religious schools. Once they are cut off from their families the indoctrination begins.
“Life is very hard for them there. They are not given anything to eat and the madrassa becomes like a jail,” said Shaheer.
“Step by step they start hating their family... Hatred is fueled and they feel they have no future in life.”
Poverty drives child soldiers into Afghanistan’s endless war
Poverty drives child soldiers into Afghanistan’s endless war
Myanmar ethnic rebels say captured junta western command
- Ann would be the second regional military command to fall to ethnic rebels in five months
- Fighting has rocked Rakhine state since the Arakan Army attacked security forces in November last year
The Arakan Army (AA) had “completely captured” the western regional command at Ann on Friday after weeks of fighting, the group said in a statement on its Telegram channel.
Ann would be the second regional military command to fall to ethnic rebels in five months, and a huge blow to the military.
Myanmar’s military has 14 regional commands across the country with many of them currently fighting established ethnic rebel groups or newer “People’s Defense Forces” that have sprung up to battle the military’s 2021 coup.
Fighting has rocked Rakhine state since the AA attacked security forces in November last year, ending a ceasefire that had largely held since the putsch.
AA fighters have seized swathes of territory in the state that is home to China and India-backed port projects and all but cut off state capital Sittwe.
The AA posted photos of a man whom it said was the Ann deputy regional commander, in the custody of its fighters.
AFP was unable to confirm that information and has contacted the AA’s spokesman for comment.
AFP was unable to reach people on the ground around Ann where Internet and phone services are patchy.
In decades of on-off fighting since independence from Britain in 1948 the military had never lost a regional military command until last August, when the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) captured the northeastern command in Lashio in Shan state.
Myanmar’s borderlands are home to myriad ethnic armed groups who have battled the military since independence for autonomy and control of lucrative resources.
Last month the UN warned Rakhine state was heading toward famine, as ongoing clashes squeeze commerce and agricultural production.
“Rakhine’s economy has stopped functioning,” the report from the UN Development Programme said, projecting “famine conditions by mid-2025” if current levels of food insecurity were left unaddressed.
Joe Biden approves $571 million in defense support for Taiwan
- The US is bound by law to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself despite the lack of formal diplomatic ties between Washington and Taipei
- Taiwan went on alert last week in response to what it said was China’s largest massing of naval forces in three decades
WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden on Friday agreed to provide $571.3 million in defense support for Taiwan, the White House said, while the State Department approved the potential sale to the island of $265 million worth of military equipment.
The United States is bound by law to provide Chinese-claimed Taiwan with the means to defend itself despite the lack of formal diplomatic ties between Washington and Taipei, to the constant anger of Beijing.
Democratically governed Taiwan rejects China’s claims of sovereignty.
China has stepped up military pressure against Taiwan, including daily military activities near the island and two rounds of war games this year.
Taiwan went on alert last week in response to what it said was China’s largest massing of naval forces in three decades around Taiwan and in the East and South China Seas.
Biden had delegated to the secretary of state the authority “to direct the drawdown of up to $571.3 million in defense articles and services of the Department of Defense, and military education and training, to provide assistance to Taiwan,” the White House said in a statement without providing details.
Taiwan’s defense ministry thanked the United States for its “firm security guarantee,” saying in a statement the two sides would continue to work closely on security issues to ensure peace in the Taiwan Strait.
The Pentagon said the State Department had approved the potential sale to Taiwan of about $265 million worth of command, control, communications, and computer modernization equipment.
Taiwan’s defense ministry said the equipment sale would help upgrade its command-and-control systems.
Taiwan’s defense ministry also said on Saturday that the US government had approved $30 million of parts for 76 mm autocannon, which it said would boost the island’s capacity to counter China’s “grey-zone” warfare.
US Senate approves Social Security change despite fiscal concerns
- The Senate in a 76-20 bipartisan vote shortly after midnight approved the Social Security Fairness Act
- The House of Representatives last month approved the bill in a 327-75 vote
WASHINGTON: The US Congress early on Saturday passed a measure to boost Social Security retirement payments to some retirees who draw public pensions — such as former police and firefighters — which critics warned will further weaken the program’s finances.
The Senate in a 76-20 bipartisan vote shortly after midnight approved the Social Security Fairness Act, which would repeal two-decades-old provisions that can reduce benefits for people who also receive a pension.
The House of Representatives last month approved the bill in a 327-75 vote, which means that Senate approval sends it to Democratic President Joe Biden to sign into law. The White House did not immediately respond to a question about whether Biden intended to do so.
The bill will overturn a decades-old change to the program that had been made to limit federal benefits to some higher-earning workers with pensions. Over time, growing numbers of municipal employees such as firefighters and postal workers also saw their payments capped.
Most Americans do not participate in pension plans, which pay a defined benefit, and instead are dependent on what money they can save and Social Security. Just one in ten US private sector workers have pension plans, according to Labor Department data.
The new provisions impact about 3 percent of Social Security beneficiaries — totaling a little more than 2.5 million Americans — and the workers and retirees affected by these provisions are key constituencies for lawmakers and their powerful advocacy groups have pushed for a legislative fix.
Some of them could receive hundreds of dollars more a month in federal benefits as a result of the bill, retirement experts said.
Some federal budget experts warned the change could hurt the program’s already shaky finances as the bill’s price tag is approximately $196 billion over the next decade, according to an analysis by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office.
Emerson Sprick, associate director of economic policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center, said in an interview, “the fact that there is such overwhelming support in Congress for exactly the opposite of what policy researchers agree on is pretty frustrating.”
Instead of scrapping the current formulas for determining retirement benefits for these workers, revisions have been floated, as well as more accurate communication from the Social Security Administration on how much money these public sector employees should expect.
The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan fiscal think tank, is also warning the extra cost will affect the program’s future.
“We are racing to our own fiscal demise,” the group’s president, Maya MacGuineas, said in a statement.
“It is truly astonishing that at a time when we are just nine years away from the trust fund for the nation’s largest program being completely exhausted, lawmakers are about to consider speeding that up by six months.”
Republican Senator Ted Cruz on the Senate floor on Wednesday said the bill as written will “throw granny over the cliff.”
“Every senator who votes to impose $200 billion dollars of cost on the Social Security Trust Fund, you are choosing to sacrifice the interest of seniors who paid into Social Security and who earned those benefits,” he said.
Bill supporters said Social Security’s future can be addressed at a later time.
Asked about the solvency implications pf this legislation, Senator Michael Bennet, a supporter of the bill, said: “Those are much longer term issues that we have to find a way to address together.”
US authorizes military sales of more than $5 billion to Egypt
- Cairo is one of the largest recipients of US security aid since its peace treaty with Israel in 1979
Washington: The United States government on Friday authorized the sale of more than $5 billion in military equipment to Egypt, which has become an increasingly close partner in mediating the Gaza crisis despite serious human rights concerns.
The State Department informed Congress it had approved the sale of $4.69 billion in equipment for 555 US-made M1A1 Abrams tanks operated by Egypt, $630 million in 2,183 Hellfire air-to-surface missiles and $30 million in precision-guided munitions.
The sale “will support the foreign policy and national security of the United States by helping to improve the security of a Major Non-NATO Ally country that continues to be an important strategic partner in the Middle East,” according to a statement.
US President Joe Biden took office in 2021 vowing a harder line on Egypt over human rights concerns under President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, but his administration has repeatedly gone ahead with arms deals with Egypt.
Cairo is one of the largest recipients of US security aid since its peace treaty with Israel in 1979.
Egypt and the United States have worked increasingly closely since the outbreak of the war in Gaza in 2023, with Cairo playing a mediating role.
In addition to the sales to Egypt, the State Department also authorized $295 million in equipment for Taiwan, $170 million in bombs and missiles for Morocco, and $130 million in uncrewed aircraft systems and armored vehicles to Greece.
The Taiwan authorizations were announced shortly after US President Joe Biden announced $571.3 million in new military aid to the self-ruled island, which China claims as part of its territory and has vowed to retake — by force, if necessary.
The US Congress can still block the sales, but such attempts are usually unsuccessful.
Nearly half of taxpayers worldwide don’t see their money being spent for public good — survey
- 52% of respondents globally agreed that taxes were a contribution to the community rather than a cost
- Only 33% individuals agreed that tax revenues in their country were spent for the betterment of public
ISLAMABAD: Almost half of taxpayers across the globe do not see their money being spent for the betterment of public, a recent global survey found, in contrast with the idea of citizens agreeing to pay taxes in exchange for services.
The poll was conducted by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), a globally recognized professional body providing qualifications and advancing standards in accountancy.
The survey found that 52% of the respondents globally agreed that taxes were a contribution to the community rather than a cost, while 25% disagreed with this. The rest chose to stay neutral.
“Only 33% agree that tax revenues in their country are spent for the public good,” the ACCA said on Friday, adding that 46% respondents disagreed with the notion.
In addition, it said, 32% agreed that public services and infrastructure were a fair return for the taxes they paid, with 50% disagreeing and the rest staying neutral.
Pakistan has one of the lowest tax ratios in the world, according to the World Bank. The South Asian country’s failure to generate tax revenues in higher amounts stems from the fact that it has a narrow tax base, low compliance rate, an inefficient tax administration and massive tax evasion.
The South Asian country aims to collect an ambitious $46 billion through taxes this financial year (July 2024 till June 2025). Authorities say they have identified 4.9 million taxable persons in the country by using modern technology.
“Trust in tax systems is crucial for sustainable development and prosperity, and the findings of this survey highlight the challenges that many governments across the world face in building it,” said Helen Brand, the ACCA chief executive.
“We look forward to using this important work to engage with policymakers, tax authorities and civil society to drive evidence-based policy initiatives to build effective and trusted tax systems.”
