Taliban evicted 6,000 displaced Afghans form informal settlements, says aid group

ISLAMABAD — Taliban authorities in Afghanistan have evicted thousands of displaced people in the capital Kabul and demolished their informal settlements, making more than 800 vulnerable families homeless, an aid group said Tuesday.

The Norwegian Refugee Council urged Taliban authorities to immediately halt ongoing evictions until appropriate longer-term solutions for relocation have been identified.

“I am deeply shocked by Sunday’s forced eviction of around 6,000 internally displaced people in the capital. These are some of the most vulnerable communities in Afghanistan,” said Neil Turner, NRC’s country director in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan is still in the grip of growing humanitarian and socioeconomic crises that have devastated the population since the Taliban takeover in August 2021.

At the end of 2023, 4.2 million people were internally displaced as a result of conflict and violence, and 1.5 million due to disasters, according to NCR.

The sudden return of around 600,000 Afghans from Pakistan since last September has dramatically increased the number of displaced people in the country, placing additional burdens on already stretched resources, said the group.