The Taliban terrorist organization, which recently took control of Afghanistan's border with Tajikistan, said it had taken control of 85% of the territory in Afghanistan, and international concern mounted over problems getting medicines and supplies into the country.This was reported by Reuters.
The Afghan dismissed the assertion that the Taliban controlled most of the country as part of a propaganda campaign launched as foreign forces, including the United States, withdraw after almost 20 years of fighting.But local Afghan officials said Taliban fighters, emboldened by the withdrawal, had captured an important district in Herat province, home to tens of thousands of minority Shi’ite Hazaras.
According to Afghan and Taliban officials, Torghundi, a northern town on the border with Turkmenistan, had also been captured by the Taliban overnight.
In this regard, the international community expressed concerns over the delivery of medicines to the country.
A World Health Organization (WHO)official said health workers were struggling to get medicines and supplies into Afghanistan, and that some staff had fled after facilities came under attack.
The WHO's regional emergencies director, Rick Brennan, said at least 18.4 million people require humanitarian assistance, including 3.1 million children at risk of acute malnutrition.
"We are concerned about our lack of access to be able to provide essential medicines and supplies and we are concerned about attacks on health care," Brennan, speaking via videolink from Cairo, told a U.N. briefing in Geneva.
Some aid will arrive by next week including 3.5 million COVID-19 vaccine doses and oxygen concentrators, he said.
In addition, hundreds of Afghan security personnel and refugees continue to flee across the border into neighbouring Iran and Tajikistan, causing concern in Moscow and other foreign capitals that radical Islamists could infiltrate Central Asia.
Earlier, "Apostrophe" reported that the U.S. withdrew its troops from Afghanistan, but does not stop supporting the country.