Taliban Mark Five Years in Power Amid Humanitarian and Security Concerns
The Taliban held a parade in Kabul to mark five years in power as international groups cited worsening humanitarian conditions and rights restrictions.
Kabul, Afghanistan. The Taliban marked five years in power on Saturday with a military parade in Kabul, presenting their administration as firmly in control despite warnings from aid and rights groups of deepening crises.
Victory day parade
Armoured Taliban vehicles paraded outside the former U.S. embassy in Kabul, displaying flags and banners during celebrations described by the government as “victory day” from Western domination.
Sirajuddin Haqqani, the Taliban’s interior minister, said in a video address that the group’s return to power resulted from “morale, courage” and “divine assistance.”
He also made a rare acknowledgement of “issues and problems that may still exist.”
Humanitarian and rights concerns
International organisations and the United Nations have said the Taliban have struggled to address Afghanistan’s natural and humanitarian crises over the past five years, partly because of severe restrictions imposed on Afghan women.
Human rights groups say the Taliban’s pledges to govern more liberally than during their rule in the late 1990s and early 2000s quickly faltered after they returned to power in 2021, following the withdrawal of the United States and its allies.
The earlier Taliban period was marked by public executions, the sheltering of Osama bin Laden and the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas.
Since 2021, the Taliban have imposed sweeping restrictions on women and girls, barring 2.5 million from secondary schools and universities, according to UNESCO, while also limiting their freedom of movement.
Security incidents in northeast
The Taliban have also faced a series of assassinations of key regional officials in northeastern Afghanistan in recent weeks.
In late July, the Taliban’s information director in Badakhshan province was killed in an attack later claimed by Islamic State. Local media reported that the mayor of the provincial capital was also killed in an attack on Thursday.
Taliban officials did not immediately confirm the reports.
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