KANDAHAR, Afghanistan: The Taliban has shut down dozens of clinics in the southern Afghan province of Uruzgan in the past few days, officials said, amid demands for special treatment for its fighters who control most of the embattled region.
Dost Mohammad Nayab, a spokesman for the provincial governor, said authorities were talking to elders, asking them to intercede with the Taliban to allow the clinics to reopen.
“Hospitals are not places for politics and we are asking the Taliban to let our doctors and health care workers return,” Nayab said.
Only three clinics, including the provincial hospital, were operating after the Taliban shut down 46 of the 49 treatment centers in Uruzgan since Friday, Nayab said. The Taliban were asking for special treatment for their fighters, he said.
“We have asked elders in the areas to talk to the Taliban to fix this problem,” he said.
Uruzgan, which abuts the Taliban heartlands of Kandahar and Helmand, has been under intense pressure from the insurgents for years and the defenses of the provincial capital Tarin Kot were briefly overrun last year.
A Taliban spokesman confirmed that its fighters had closed down dozens of treatment centers but said it was done because of poor services, underlining its push to replace basic government services in many areas under its control.
“In most of these centers there was no proper medication. There were no doctors or health care personnel,” the spokesman said. “We asked repeatedly for better services but no one cared. Now if the local administration do not provide basics, we will.”
The incident underlines the difficulty the Western-backed government in Kabul has in exerting control in provincial regions where the insurgency is strongest.
US officials estimate that the Taliban, fighting to drive out foreign forces and impose strict Islamic law on Afghanistan, control or contest around 40 percent of the country, although they have not taken any major provincial city.
US commanders identified Uruzgan province as a major priority for 2017 and there has been a big focus on bolstering Afghan forces with on-the-ground US training teams.
Taliban shut down clinics in southern Afghan province, demand special treatment for fighters
Taliban shut down clinics in southern Afghan province, demand special treatment for fighters
Nigeria govt critic detained by anti-corruption agency
Abuja: Nigeria’s anti-corruption agency said Tuesday it was questioning opposition politician Nasir El-Rufai, a prominent critic of President Bola Tinubu.
The authorities launched court proceedings on Monday against El-Rufai, a former governor of Kaduna state, after he said on Nigerian television he had tapped the phone of Tinubu’s national security adviser.
Local media said he was being questioned about the alleged misuse of 432 billion naira ($319 million) during his stint as governor of Kaduna between 2015 and 2023.
He was summoned to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and appeared voluntarily, EFCC spokesman Dele Oyewale told AFP on Tuesday.
“He was invited and he honored the invitation,” Oyewale said. “He is being interviewed now.”
El-Rufai told TV channel Arise News on Friday he had intercepted calls from Tinubu’s aide Nuhu Ribadu, whom he accused of using the security services as his “personal tools.”
He also said the west African country’s domestic intelligence agency, DSS, had tried to arrest him at Abuja airport the day before but he had refused to go with them.
El-Rufai, who recently declared that he was still considering whether to challenge Tinubu in the 2027 presidential election, said the anti-corruption commission had “procured the DSS to abduct me for them.”
“This is their modus operandi. They are personal tools of Nuhu Ribadu,” he said.
At the weekend, he posted on X a letter addressed to Ribadu asking the latter to explain an alleged delivery of 10 kilogrammes of thallium sulphate, a highly toxic chemical.
Another senior member of El-Rufai’s opposition African Democratic Congress (ADC) party, former justice minister Abubakar Malami, is also facing legal proceedings over allegations of terrorism and money-laundering.
