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The Taliban have called on the international community to lift its sanctions on Afghanistan shortly after the United Nations warns about the countrys irreversible economic collapse.

Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, theTalibans deputy prime minister, made the demand during a conference on the national private sector on Friday, with some foreign representatives in attendance, Afghanistans TOLOnews television channel reported.

I call for...the international community to lift the remaining sanctions on Afghanistan and give the opportunity for Afghans to play their role in the economic development inside and outside Afghanistan, he said.

The official urged that nationwide security had been provided in Afghanistan and the ground was paved for trade and investment like never before.

He urged the Afghan traders inside and outside the country to invest in Afghanistan.

Come to your own country. Your investment and trade here will benefit you and the Afghan nation, Baradar said.

The Taliban authorities lack international recognition six months after overrunning Kabul as the last US-led international troops departed, ending 20 years of war.

The administration of US President Joe Biden has frozen nearly $9.5 billion in assets belonging to the Afghan central bank since the withdrawal of its occupation forces from the country in August 2021. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank have suspended activities in Afghanistan, withholding aid as well as $340 million in new reserves issued by the IMF last August.

Many of the US allies and Western governments have also largely suspended their financial assistance to Afghanistan since the US troops withdrawal and the Talibans rise to power.

On Wednesday, Deborah Lyons, the special representative of the UN secretary-general and head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), said that solving the Afghan peoples problems required collaborating with the Taliban.

It is now clear that it will be impossible to truly assist Afghan people without working with the de facto authorities, Lyons said. This must be difficult for some to accept. But it is essential.

Six months of indecision, marked by continued sanctions albeit with some relief and unstructured political engagement, are eroding vital social and economic coping systems and pushing the population into greater uncertainty, Lyons said.

Afghanistan's economic collapse is "approaching a point of irreversibility," she cautioned.

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Taliban call for lifting of sanctions on Afghanistan - Press TV

Mellissa Fung is a Canadian journalist who has reported from Afghanistan.

Like everyone else, I have been heartbroken and dumbstruck by the horrific news coming out of Ukraine. Lives have been upended overnight. Men have taken their families to the border, saying goodbye, and then turned around to fight for their country, unsure whether they will survive to see their loved ones again. Civilians children have been killed with increasing abandon by a madman bent on erasing their country, their very being. Parts of beautiful cities have been turned into rubble. A population is on edge, awaiting inevitable violence.

The last time I felt this kind of sadness and fear was last August, when the Taliban rolled into Kabul and took Afghanistan back under their control. Girls were no longer able to go to school. Women were forced to hide at home. Desperate families had to make their way to Afghanistans chaotic airport or the border with Pakistan, to try to flee the inevitable oppression they knew they faced if they stayed. There was no fight and no bombs, as the government quickly capitulated but there was still so much fear.

That fear is just as profound today as it was more than six months ago, as the Taliban continue to tighten their rule with vicious tactics throughout the country.

Last week, the Taliban stepped up house searches in what spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid called a clearance operation to round up criminals and confiscate illegal weapons, prompting many to burn books and documents that might hint at any connection with the West. He then announced that citizens who have no excuse to leave the country would be prevented from doing so, which would have effectively denied more Afghans from fleeing a country that is failing economically and in the middle of a famine. (He walked back these comments days later, saying that Afghans with the right documents can still travel out of Afghanistan.)

And last Friday morning at about the same time the first Russian bombs were hitting Ukraine the Taliban were executing a door-to-door search in Kabul, as part of a sweep, targeting former Afghan government and military officials. One of them sent me a desperate appeal, along with a video he filmed with his phone of Taliban roaming up and down his street: Thats them in our neighbourhood. They are looking for us, maam. Please can you help us.

The young person who sent me the video told me he was starting to lose hope. It has been now six months since Afghanistan government collapsed, every minutes of our life is breathing with tension; we are frightened to death. We are stranded here not aware of what will happen to us. We might die here.

As of this writing, more than a million Ukrainians have managed to flee to neighbouring countries since Russia invaded their country last week. Afghans, meanwhile, have few options. Most of the large-scale evacuation flights hastily arranged by different groups over the past six months have slowed or stopped. Bombs may not be tearing up their cities, but they feel certain that death might come in other ways, should they be disappeared by the Taliban.

Canada announced it would prioritize applications for Ukrainians as well as establish new immigration measures for those seeking to reunite with family or start a new life. According to Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada, the department has approved nearly 2,000 applications from Ukrainian nationals since Jan. 19 of this year. Thousands more will likely apply in the coming weeks and months, and this is great news; every one of them should be welcomed with the kindness and empathy that has made this country one of the most desired destinations in the world for those fleeing violence.

But we also need to remember that there are thousands of other at-risk people still in limbo, waiting desperately for a response to their applications for resettlement. Of the 40,000 refugees Canada committed to receiving from Afghanistan last year, fewer than 8,000 have actually been resettled at this point. Some of those still waiting wrote to me this week, wondering if Ukrainian refugees would be prioritized over them. They were right to worry, it appears: on Thursday, Canadas Immigration Minister announced special new streams specifically for Ukrainians, with no limit on the numbers that can apply.

Reading between the lines of their messages, I know they are worried about some of the prejudices that are already creeping into how we talk about Ukraine and Afghanistan. They know that while Ukraine is being referred to as a western country, and Kyiv a European capital, Afghanistan is seen as a developing country, and Kabul a foreign capital. A CBS News correspondent in Ukraine actually said this explicitly on air last week: this isnt a place, with all due respect, like Iraq or Afghanistan, that has seen conflict raging for decades. This is a relatively civilized, relatively European city, one where you wouldnt expect that, or hope that its going to happen.

I tell the Afghans that Canada is a big country, and that Canadians welcome all refugees without prejudice or preference but its all I can tell them. No one ever wants to be a refugee, and the scenes we are witnessing at Ukraines borders and train stations leave no doubt about how wrenching it is to be forced to leave ones home, life and country, without knowing whether it will ever be possible to return. The least we can do is to make sure they have a safe landing should they decide to start over again in our country, to give them everything they need to rebuild the lives that have been ripped from them. But we also need to treat all refugees equally and compassionately whether they are running from Russian bombs in Ukraine, or Taliban brutality in Afghanistan.

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Opinion: All refugees from Ukraine, Afghanistan, or anywhere else need to be treated with equal compassion - The Globe and Mail

Some 82,000 Afghans were airlifted from their country last August on emergency evacuations set up by the U.S., according to a newreportfrom the advocacy group Association for Wartime Allies, but tens of thousands who worked with the U.S. are still stuck in Afghanistan.

The report said when the capital Kabul fell to the Taliban on Aug. 15, 2021, some 81,000 Afghans had pending applications for Special Immigrant Visas. which are U.S. visas available for people from Afghanistan and Iraq who worked with the U.S. government or military.

But just 3% of those applicants were actually evacuated last year. Some 78,000 were left behind.

Last month, the Department of Homeland Security announced some 76,000 Afghans living temporarily on U.S. airbases had made it to permanent resettlement cities across the U.S., including more than 2,000 resettling in Arizona.

But advocates warn many families are still separated, spread out in other countries and entangled in a bureaucratic puzzle that's making it difficult to reunite.

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New report shows tens of thousands of SIV applicants are still stuck in Afghanistan - Fronteras: The Changing America Desk

For more than a week, the eyes of the world have been on Ukraine as Russia continues its military offensive through the country.

But Ukraine isn't the only part of the world in the midst of an armed conflict. Some countries, such as Somalia and Syria, have experienced military conflicts spanning more than a decade. In other regions, worsening tensions have led some observers to fear that a war could break out at some point in the future.

Here are some other regions that are currently at war or could eventually end up there due to ongoing tensions.

For almost 11 years, Syria has been caught in a civil war between its government, the Syrian opposition and ISIS. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights places the death toll between 494,438 and 606,000.

Bashar al-Assad's government has also been supported by Vladimir Putin, who has deployed Russian airstrikes against Syrian rebels and ISIS since 2015.

The conflict in Syria has also created a refugee crisis, as 6.8 million Syrians have been forced to flee their country. But as neighbouring European countries prepare to welcome the hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian refugees fleeing, some have pointed out the double standards in how refugees from the Middle East have been treated.

While Taiwan and Mainland China have been controlled by separate governments since the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949, Beijing has long contended that Taiwan is a breakaway province of the People's Republic of China.

In recent years, tensions between the two sides have grown with China ramping up military pressure and Taiwan asserting sovereignty. Some observers have expressed fears that Beijing could one day initiate an invasion of Taiwan, similar to Russia's attack on Ukraine.

"There is a great sense of insecurity when you talk to the folks in Taiwan about the impact of invasion of Ukraine and what this could mean for them," said Tina J. Park, executive director for the Canadian Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, in an interview with CTVNews.ca on Monday.

Taiwanese authorities have called it "inappropriate" to " link Ukraine's situation with Taiwan's, disturbing people's morale." However, If Russia's invasion of Ukraine turns out to be successful, Park believes that could set "a very dangerous precedent for what other authoritarian regimes take away as lessons."

"China is always interested in exerting more influence over Taiwan," Park said. "China has been historically interested in that, and Taiwan has been very fearful of potential annexation."

The Yemen Civil War has gone on for over seven years, killing more than 377,000, according to the UN.

Since 2014, the Yemeni government led by Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi has been at war against the Houthi movement, a predominately Shia Muslim political group in Yemen. In 2015, Saudi Arabia and some of its allies started a bombing campaign in the country to support the Hadi government.

The conflict in Yemen is also part of the proxy battle between Saudi Arabia and Iran, although it remains unclear to what extent Iran is supporting the Houthis.

The Saudi intervention has brought widespread condemnation over the high number of civilian casualties. Nearly 25,000 civilians have died in Yemen from the Saudi-led campaign.

The U.S. has also been providing logistical, intelligence and arms support for the Saudi-led coalition, although U.S. President Joe Biden promised in January 2021 that Washington would stop providing arms to the Saudis.

Canada has been shipping light-armoured vehicles to Saudi Arabia as well, but it's unclear if these vehicles have been used in the Yemen conflict.

The Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan in August 2021, coinciding with the withdrawal of American troops and the end of the U.S. mission in the country.

It only took the Taliban three months to take over the whole country, as the Afghan military failed to push back against the offensive without U.S. support.

Despite the Taliban's return to power, war continues to be a reality in Afghanistan. For the past seven years, the Taliban has been at war with ISIS-K, the ISIS affiliate based in Central Asia. ISIS-K was also involved in a suicide bombing at the Kabul airport in August 2021, when evacuation efforts were taking place.

Some Afghans who remain loyal to the previous government have organized under the National Resistance Front and taken up arms against the Taliban. These militias, largely based in Afghanistan's Panjshir region, have regularly engaged in clashes with the Taliban ever since they came into power.

Both India and Pakistan claim the region of Kashmir in the Himalayas as part of their territory. Since 1947, the two sides have engaged in wars, skirmishes and military standoffs over control of the territory. Currently, approximately half of the territory is controlled by India while the other half is controlled by Pakistan.

Since the late 1980s, militant groups supported by Pakistan have also been engaged in conflict with Indian police and military in the parts of Kashmir administered by India. Attacks from militant groups, as well as the Indian government's counter-insurgency operations, have resulted in thousands of civilian deaths.

India has also been engaged in border disputes with China in the same region. Since 2020, Indian and Chinese troops have engaged in skirmishes near Tibet and India's Ladakh region, located next to Kashmir.

However, instead of gun battles, these skirmishes have generally been fought with fists, rocks, barbed wire and melee weapons. This is because in 1996, the two nuclear states signed a treaty agreeing to not use firearms during border disputes.

Pakistan resolved its border disputes with China in 1963 and since then, the two nations have shared close economic and military ties.

Somalia has been in a civil war between governments and rebel groups since 1991, but the most recent phase of the war began in 2006 with the rise of al-Shabaab, an affiliate of al Qaeda.

Hundreds of thousands of Somalis have died due to the fighting as well as the famine that ensued. The UN High Commission for Refugees estimates that 1.5 million Somalis have also been internally displaced.

Around 700 U.S. troops had also been actively involved in the conflict, launching airstrikes and carrying out raids against al-Shabab and other allied militant groups. But in late 2020, then-U.S. president Donald Trump announced that nearly all American troops would withdraw from the country. Despite the withdrawal, which was completed in January 2021, U.S. forces have continued to carry out occasional airstrikes against al-Shabab.

Since November 2020, the Ethiopian government has been at war with the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), an ethnonationalist paramilitary group and political party that governs the region of Tigray in northern Ethiopia.

Between 1991 and 2018, the TPLF had been a powerful part of Ethiopia's governing coalition. But in 2018, Abiy Ahmed became Ethiopia's prime minister, putting the TPLF in opposition.

One of the first things that Abiy did as prime minister was sign a peace treaty with Eritrea, which had been an adversary of the TPLF. Tensions between the Ethiopian government and the TPLF came to a head after Abiy postponed the 2020 elections, citing the COVID-19 pandemic, and the TPLF retreated back to Tigray. That's when Tigrayan forces attacked an Ethiopian military base, and fighting has continued since then.

The UN says over two million people have in northern Ethiopia have been displaced because of the conflict. UN investigators last November said that there are "reasonable grounds to believe that all parties" of the war are committing war crimes, citing widespread reports of rapes, looting of properties and ethnic-based attacks.

The United Nations and much of the international community, including Canada, consider the West Bank, Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights to be under Israeli occupation. In the Palestinian territories, Israel imposes strict limits on the movement of Palestinians as well as the flow of goods and services.

Israel has regularly exchanged rocket fire with Hamas in the Gaza Strip since the militant group came into power in 2006. The most recent outbreak of violence came after Hamas launched rockets into Israel in May 2021, as Israel's Supreme Court was expected to deliver a ruling on whether to evict Palestinian families from the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah.

While casualties in Israel have been minimal, thanks in large part to Israel's Iron Dome missile defence system, the UN reported that 256 people in Gaza were killed in the May 2021 conflict, 128 being civilians.

Human rights groups such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International say that Israel routinely uses "discriminatory force" to crack down on Palestinian protesters in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

Palestinians have been subjected to violence and terror from Jewish Israeli settlers in the West Bank, violence towards which human rights groups say that Israel ignores. Canada and the international community also consider the Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem to be a violation of international law.

In February 2021, the Myanmar military staged a coup d'tat, resulting in the ousting and arrest of Sate Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi.

That led to mass protests against the coup along with the start of an insurgency against the military junta. The pro-democracy government-in-exile as well as ethnic paramilitary groups, like the Kachin Independence Army and the Karen National Liberation Army, have engaged in increasingly violent clashes with the military.

The death toll from the armed conflict is unclear, but the UN says that number of deaths is "in the thousands." In a report published in February, the human rights group Foritfy Rights said the Myanmar military has massacred civilians, used human shields and other committed other war crimes throughout the conflict.

Bosnia declared independence from Yugoslavia in 1992, triggering a war that left more than 100,000 people dead. Since then, the country has comprised two entities: the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the Republic of Srpska. The presidency of the country is also shared by three people representing the three main ethnic groups -- Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats.

However, tensions within Bosnia have re-emerged as Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik, who serves as the Serb member of the presidency, has been pursuing an increasingly secessionist and nationalist agenda.

The U.S. imposed sanctions against Dodik in January, accusing him of "corrupt activities" that threaten to destabilize the region. The EU has vowed to avert the possible breakup of Bosnia and is also considering sanctions against Dodik.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have long been engaged in conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, a breakaway region comprised of mostly ethnic Armenians that is internationally recognized as a part of Azerbaijan.

The two countries had both been Soviet republics. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh declared independence and sought to join the new state of Armenia. Azerbaijan refused to recognize Nagorno-Karabakh's independence, resulting in a war that lasted from 1988 to 1994.

After a ceasefire agreement was signed, Armenia retained control of the Azerbaijani territories around Nagorno-Karabakh. But in September 2020, fighting broke out again after Azerbaijan sought to reclaim some of the territories held by Armenia.

A second ceasefire agreement brokered by Russia was reached in November 2020. Armenia agreed to withdraw its forces in the Azerbaijani territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh, while Russian peacekeepers were deployed to the region.

Even after the ceasefire, Armenia and Azerbaijan have continued to engage in occasional border skirmishes.

With files from Reuters and The Associate Press.

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Other countries with brewing tensions and military conflicts - CTV News

The United Nations says it has received credible allegations that more than 100 members of the ousted Afghan government, its security forces and those who worked with international troops have been killed since the Taliban took over on 15 August.

Secretary general Antonio Guterres said in a report that more than two thirds of the deaths were alleged to have resulted from extrajudicial killings by the Taliban or its affiliates, despite the Talibans announcement of general amnesties for those affiliated with the former government and US-led coalition forces.

The UN political mission in Afghanistan also received credible allegations of extrajudicial killings of at least 50 individuals suspected of affiliation with Isil-KP, the Islamic State extremist group operating in Afghanistan, Guterres said in the report to the UN security council.

In the report, obtained by the Associated Press on Sunday, he added that despite Taliban assurances, the UN political mission had also received credible allegations of enforced disappearances and other violations impacting the right to life and physical integrity of former government and coalition members.

Guterres said human rights defenders and media workers also continue to come under attack, intimidation, harassment, arbitrary arrest, ill-treatment and killings.

Eight civil society activists were killed, including three by the Taliban and three by Islamic State extremists, and 10 were subjected to temporary arrests, beatings and threats by the Taliban, he said. Two journalists were killed one by IS and two were injured by unknown armed men.

The secretary general said the UN missions documented 44 cases of temporary arrests, beatings and threats of intimidation, 42 of them by the Taliban.

The Taliban overran most of Afghanistan as US and Nato forces were in the final stages of their chaotic withdrawal from the country after 20 years. They entered Kabul on 15 August without any resistance from the Afghan army or the countrys president, Ashraf Ghani, who fled.

The Taliban initially promised a general amnesty for those linked to the former government and international forces, and tolerance and inclusiveness towards women and ethnic minorities. However, the Taliban have renewed restrictions on women and appointed an all-male government, which have met with dismay by the international community.

Afghanistans aid-dependent economy was already stumbling when the Taliban seized power, and the international community froze Afghanistans assets abroad and halted economic support, recalling the Talibans reputation for brutality during its 1996-2001 rule and refusal to educate girls and allow women to work.

Guterres said: The situation in Afghanistan remains precarious and uncertain six months after the Taliban takeover as the multiple political, socio-economic and humanitarian shocks reverberate across the country.

He said Afghanistan today faces multiple crises: a growing humanitarian emergency, a massive economic contraction, the crippling of its banking and financial systems, the worst drought in 27 years and the Talibans failure to form an inclusive government and restore the rights of girls to education and women to work.

An estimated 22.8 million people are projected to be in crisis and emergency levels of food insecurity until March 2022, the UN chief said. Almost 9 million of these will be at emergency levels of food insecurity the highest number in the world. Half of all children under five are facing acute malnutrition.

On a positive note, Guterres reported a significant decline in the overall number of conflict-related security incidents as well as civilian casualties since the Taliban takeover. The UN recorded 985 security-related incidents between 19 August and 31 December, a 91% decrease compared with the same period in 2020, he said.

The eastern, central, southern and western regions accounted for 75% of all recorded incidents, he said, with Nangarhar, Kabul, Kunar and Kandahar ranking as the most conflict-affected provinces.

Despite the reduction in violence, Guterres said the Taliban faced several challenges, including rising attacks against their members.

Some are attributed to the National Resistance Front comprising some Afghan opposition figures, and those associated with the former government, he said. These groups have been primarily operating in Panjshir province and Baghlans Andarab district but have not made significant territorial inroads, although armed clashes are regularly documented, along with forced displacement and communication outages.

Guterres said intra-Taliban tensions along ethnic lines and competition over jobs had also resulted in violence, pointing to armed clashes on 4 November between between Taliban forces in Bamyan city.

In the report, the secretary general proposed priorities for the UN political mission in the current environment, urged international support to prevent widespread hunger and the countrys economic collapse, and urged the Taliban to guarantee womens rights and human rights.

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Afghanistan: more than 100 believed killed despite Taliban ...