Afghanistan

AFGHANISTAN

Information about travelling to Afghanistan

Afghanistan is located in Southern Asia, north and west of Pakistan, east of Iran

Facts about Afghanistan
Population32,738,376 (July 2008 est
CapitalKabul
Time zoneUTC+4.5 (9.5 hours ahead of Washington, DC during Standard Time)
Location Southern Asia, north and west of Pakistan, east of Iran

General info about Afghanistan
Ahmad Shah DURRANI unified the Pashtun tribes and founded Afghanistan in 1747. The country served as a buffer between the British and Russian empires until it won independence from notional British control in 1919. A brief experiment in democracy ended in a 1973 coup and a 1978 Communist counter-coup. The Soviet Union invaded in 1979 to support the tottering Afghan Communist regime, touching off a long and destructive war. The USSR withdrew in 1989 under relentless pressure by internationally supported anti-Communist mujahedin rebels. A series of subsequent civil wars saw Kabul finally fall in 1996 to the Taliban, a hardline Pakistani-sponsored movement that emerged in 1994 to end the country's civil war and anarchy. Following the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks in New York City, a US, Allied, and anti-Taliban Northern Alliance military action toppled the Taliban for sheltering Osama BIN LADIN. The UN-sponsored Bonn Conference in 2001 established a process for political reconstruction that included the adoption of a new constitution, a presidential election in 2004, and National Assembly elections in 2005. In December 2004, Hamid KARZAI became the first democratically elected president of Afghanistan and the National Assembly was inaugurated the following December. Despite gains toward building a stable central government, a resurgent Taliban and continuing provincial instability - particularly in the south and the east - remain serious challenges for the Afghan Government.
Disease threats
degree of risk: high food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea, hepatitis
Languages spoken
Afghan Persian or Dari (official) 50%, Pashto (official) 35%, Turkic languages (primarily Uzbek and Turkmen) 11%, 30 minor languages (primarily Balochi and Pashai) 4%, much bilingualism
What about drugs?
world's largest producer of opium; poppy cultivation increased 17% to a near-record 202,000 hectares in 2007; good growing conditions pushed potential opium production to a record 8,000 metric tons, up 42% from last year; if the entire opium crop were processed, 947 metric tons of heroin potentially could be produced; drug trade is a source of instability and the Taliban and other antigovernment groups participate in and profit from the drug trade; widespread corruption impedes counterdrug efforts; most of the heroin consumed in Europe and Eurasia is derived from Afghan opium; vulnerable to drug money laundering through informal financial networks; regional source of hashish
Ethnic division
Pashtun 42%, Tajik 27%, Hazara 9%, Uzbek 9%, Aimak 4%, Turkmen 3%, Baloch 2%, other 4%
HIV/AIDS prevalence rate
0.01% (2001 est.)
Climate
arid to semiarid; cold winters and hot summers
Resources
natural gas, petroleum, coal, copper, chromite, talc, barites, sulfur, lead, zinc, iron ore, salt, precious and semiprecious stones
Economy
Afghanistan's economy is recovering from decades of conflict. The economy has improved significantly since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001 largely because of the infusion of international assistance, the recovery of the agricultural sector, and service sector growth. Real GDP growth exceeded 11% in 2008. Despite the progress of the past few years, Afghanistan is extremely poor, landlocked, and highly dependent on foreign aid, agriculture, and trade with neighboring countries. Much of the population continues to suffer from shortages of housing, clean water, electricity, medical care, and jobs. Criminality, insecurity, and the Afghan Government's inability to extend rule of law to all parts of the country pose challenges to future economic growth. It will probably take the remainder of the decade and continuing donor aid and attention to significantly raise Afghanistan's living standards from its current level, among the lowest in the world. International pledges made by more than 60 countries and international financial institutions at the Berlin Donors Conference for Afghan reconstruction in March 2004 reached $8.9 billion for 2004-09. While the international community remains committed to Afghanistan's development, pledging over $57 billion at three donors' conferences since 2002, Kabul will need to overcome a number of challenges. Expanding poppy cultivation and a growing opium trade generate roughly $3 billion in illicit economic activity and looms as one of Kabul's most serious policy concerns. Other long-term challenges include: budget sustainability, job creation, corruption, government capacity, and rebuilding war torn infrastructure.
Environment
limited natural fresh water resources; inadequate supplies of potable water; soil degradation; overgrazing; deforestation (much of the remaining forests are being cut down for fuel and building materials); desertification; air and water pollution

Cities in Afghanistan

acin     anar darreh     andarab     asadabad     asmar     aybak     azrow     baglan     bagrami     baraki barak     cah ab     carikar     ciras     dawlatabad     deh rawud     farah     gardan diwal     gardez     herat     jalalabad     jurm     kabul     kholm     khowst     kuhestan     lar gerd     laskar gah     mehtar lam     mirabad     nahrin     orgun     panjab     qandahar     qarchi gak     qarqin     qunduz     rostaq     rudbar     sangin     sharan     shibarghan     tagab     taloqan     tir pol     tokzar     uruzgan     zaranj    


Airports in Afghanistan
BamiyanBIN
BostBST
ChakcharanCCN
FarahFAH
FaizabadFBD
GardezGRG
GhazniGZI
HeratHEA
JalalabadJAA
Khwaja RawashKBL
KandaharKDH
KhostKHT
Qala NauLQN
MaimanaMMZ
Sardeh BandSBF
SheghnanSGA
TirinkotTII
TaluqanTQN
KunduzUND
UruzganURZ
ZaranjZAJ


Beer in Afghanistan (0.33l)
Kabul~ 1.8 EUR
Kabul~ 1.8 EUR

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