Afghanistan
Islamic Republic of Afghanistan
Capital: Kabul
The Afghanistan Bulletin
Weekly Brief: October 5, 2015
Top Story Russia began airstrikes in Syria on Wednesday. America’s Secretary of State John Kerry said that Syrian president Bashar al-Assad should leave power, but Russian president Vladimir Putin said that Assad should meet with the Syrian opposition to discuss a settlement to the conflict. Though Russia claimed to target the Islamic State of Iraq and the […]
Weekly Brief: September 28, 2015
Top Story Russia is escalating its military presence in Syria. American officials report (though Russia denies) that Russia has at least 28 warplanes deployed at an airbase near Latakia, on the Syrian coast. Russia also began flying surveillance missions in Syria with drones, a week after sending artillery and tanks to an airbase controlled by the Syrian government at […]
Weekly Brief: April 20, 2015
Africa Al-Shabab militants drove a car loaded with explosives into a government compound in Mogadishu, Somalia, on Tuesday. After the explosion, gunmen stormed the government offices and killed at least 17 people, including eight civilians and two soldiers. Security guards and Somali special forces soldiers eventually managed to secure the building, killing five attackers.
Weekly Brief: April 6, 2015
Top Story Parties negotiating limits on Iran’s nuclear program announced a framework agreement on Thursday, which they intend to finalize by the end of June. The talks had intensified ahead of a March 31 soft deadline for a deal. By Monday, three primary sticking points remained: the process of lifting restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program after 10 years, […]
History
Ahmad Shah DURRANI unified the Pashtun tribes and founded Afghanistan in 1747. The country served as a buffer between the British and Russian Empires until it won independence from notional British control in 1919. A brief experiment in democracy ended in a 1973 coup and a 1978 Communist counter-coup. The Soviet Union invaded in 1979 to support the tottering Afghan Communist regime, touching off a long and destructive war. The USSR withdrew in 1989 under relentless pressure by internationally supported anti-Communist mujahedin rebels. A series of subsequent civil wars saw Kabul finally fall in 1996 to the Taliban, a hardline Pakistani-sponsored movement that emerged in 1994 to end the country's civil war and anarchy. Following the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks, a US, Allied, and anti-Taliban Northern Alliance military action toppled the Taliban for sheltering Osama BIN LADIN. The UN-sponsored Bonn Conference in 2001 established a process for political reconstruction that included the adoption of a new constitution, a presidential election in 2004, and National Assembly elections in 2005. In December 2004, Hamid KARZAI became the first democratically elected president of Afghanistan and the National Assembly was inaugurated the following December. KARZAI was re-elected in August 2009 for a second term. Despite gains toward building a stable central government, a resurgent Taliban and continuing provincial instability - particularly in the south and the east - remain serious challenges for the Afghan Government.
Geography
Metric Units
| Total Area | 652,230 sq km |
| Land Boundaries | 5,529 km |
| Border Countries | China 76 km, Iran 936 km, Pakistan 2,430 km, Tajikistan 1,206 km, Turkmenistan 744 km, Uzbekistan 137 km |
| Coastline | 0 km |
| Terrain | mostly rugged mountains; plains in north and southwest |
| Minimum Elevation | 258 m |
| Maximum Elevation | 7,485 m |
| Climate | arid to semiarid; cold winters and hot summers |
| Natural Resources | natural gas, petroleum, coal, copper, chromite, talc, barites, sulfur, lead, zinc, iron ore, salt, precious and semiprecious stones |
| Arable Land | 11.95% |
| Permanent Crops | 0.18% |
Economy
| Gross Domestic Product | $33.55 billion |
| GDP (per capita) | $1,000 |
| GDP Growth | 11% |
| Unemployment Rate | 35% |
| Population in Poverty | 36% |
| GINI Index | No data |
Budget & Debt
| Expenditures | $3.96 billion |
| Revenue | $2.24 billion |
| Current Account Balance | $-743.9 million |
| External Debt | $1.28 billion |
Trade
| Exports | $376 million |
| Export Items | opium, fruits and nuts, handwoven carpets, wool, cotton, hides and pelts, precious and semi-precious gems |
| Export Partners | Pakistan 48%, India 19%, Russia 9%, Iran 5% (FY11/12 est.) |
| Imports | $6.39 billion |
| Import Items | machinery and other capital goods, food, textiles, petroleum products |
| Import Partners | Pakistan 13.7%, Russia 12.6%, Uzbekistan 11.5%, Iran 9.1% (FY11/12 est.) |
People
| Population | 31,108,077 |
| Population Growth | 2.25% |
| Ethnic Groups | Pashtun 42%, Tajik 27%, Hazara 9%, Uzbek 9%, Aimak 4%, Turkmen 3%, Baloch 2%, other 4% |
| Religion | Sunni Muslim 80%, Shia Muslim 19%, other 1% |
| Life Expectancy | 50.11 years |
| Infant Mortality | 1.03 deaths/1,000 live births |
| Maternal Mortality | 4.7 deaths/100,000 live births |
Energy
| Electricity Production | 913.1 million kWh |
| Electricity Consumption | 2.23 billion kWh |
| From Fossil Fuels | 23.5% |
| From Nuclear | 0% |
| From Hydroelectric | 76.5% |
| From Renewable Sources | 0% |
