UN inks agreement with Taliban to establish 4,000 schools in Afghanistan

UNICEF has struck a deal with Afghanistan-based terror group Taliban to set up schools inside their controlled area. Under the deal, the UN agency aims to set up as many as 4,000 schools across the war torn country and lift over 15 million people from poverty and illiteracy. Taliban, over the years, has destroyed hundreds of schools as part of their war against western education.

Although the Taliban is strictly opposed to female education, the agreement covers providing adequate education to both boys and girls and would begin by commencing classes for just first three grades of primary school, Telegraph reported.  It also seeks the establishment of community-based schools, which would be paid for Global Partnership for Education, backed by finds from the UK and the US.

Charities and aid groups have long cut local deals to gain access to specific Taliban-controlled areas, but the UNICEF agreement is thought to be the first nationwide education arrangement with the insurgents' political office, located in Doha.  With the deal, UNICEF opined it hoped the agreement would reach more than 120,000 young children in a country where an estimated 3.7 million are out-of-school, three-fifths of them girls.

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Explosion rocks Kabul

Even with ongoing diplomatic talks between the Taliban and Afghanistan, attacks have not scared down.Bombing and shooting in Afghanistan’s capital city Kabul on Tuesday, December 15, killed the Deputy Governor of Kabul, Mohibullah Mohammadi, and his secretary. Afghan interior ministry spokesman, Tariq Arian said that the deputy provincial governor was killed with his secretary while two of his bodyguards have been badly wounded. Mohibi was the target of the attack as a sticky bomb was attached to his vehicle that led to this blast. 

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As per the reports by ANI, no militant group has claimed the responsibility for the explosion. Chairman of the High Council for National Reconciliation, Abdullah Abdullah, condemned the attack. Special presidential envoy and state minister for human rights, Sima Samar also expressed her sorrow as she wrote, “Unfortunately another attack today, people are tired of terrorist attacks every day.

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