Concerned about the "grave" humanitarian situation in Afghanistan, Norway is hosting Taliban representatives for talks in Oslo on Jan. 23-25, the Norwegian Foreign Ministry said on Friday.

In a statement, it said the Taliban, who have taken power in Afghanistan, have been invited for "meetings with the Norwegian authorities and representatives of the international community, as well as with other Afghans from a range of fields within civil society."

Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt said her country is "extremely concerned about the grave situation in Afghanistan, where millions of people are facing a full-blown humanitarian disaster."

"In order to be able to help the civilian population in Afghanistan, it is essential that both the international community and Afghans from various parts of society engage in dialogue with the Taliban," she added.

She said Norway will convey its expectations from Afghanistan's interim government, particularly on "girls’ education and human rights, such as women’s right to participate in society."

The minister said the meetings "do not represent a legitimization or recognition of the Taliban" but "we must talk to the de facto authorities in the country. We cannot allow the political situation to lead to an even worse humanitarian disaster."

Afghan women leaders, journalists, and individuals working to safeguard human rights and address humanitarian, economic, social and political issues will join the meetings.

"One of the key principles underpinning Norway’s peace and reconciliation efforts is the willingness to talk to all parties. Norway has been in dialogue with the Taliban for many years," the readout said.

Abdul Qahar Balkhi, a Taliban spokesman, said a senior delegation led by acting Foreign Minister Amir Muttaqi will leave for the Norwegian capital on Saturday.

Taliban regained power in August 2021 amid the withdrawal of foreign forces and collapse of the US-backed government. The interim administration, however, has yet to gain international recognition.

While international funding remains largely suspended, billions of dollars of the country’s assets abroad, mostly in the US, are also frozen.

According to the UN humanitarian coordination office OCHA, half the population now faces acute hunger, over nine million people have been displaced and millions of children are out of school.

The UN and its partners have launched a $4.4 billion funding appeal to avert a humanitarian catastrophe in Afghanistan in 2022.

"Humanitarian assistance, while essential, is not enough. We must prevent a collapse in basic services such as health and education. We must support the livelihoods of families and communities. This could reduce the number of people needing humanitarian assistance," Huitfeldt said.

Earlier this week, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkiye is "not turning a deaf ear to the challenges in Afghanistan," and is preparing to send a "charity train" carrying 700 tons of food, clothing and health supplies to the war-torn country.

He said Afghans are suffering due to years of internal conflict, the termination of foreign aid, drought, and harsh weather conditions./aa

The UN said Friday humanitarian aid to the Tigray region in northern Ethiopia is at the lowest since last March due to ongoing conflict.

“We are told that still no humanitarian supplies have entered Tigray though the Semera-Abala-Mekelle corridor since Dec. 14 of last year due to continued clashes in Abala, in the Afar province,” Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for Secretary General Antonio Guterres, said in a noon briefing.

“No fuel for humanitarian operations has been allowed into Tigray along this route since Aug. 2. Aid organizations are also unable to secure sufficient fuel locally,” he added.

Due to ongoing clashes, the UN humanitarian agencies and its partners had to reduce, postpone, or cancel humanitarian aid distributions such as food, medicine, nutrition supplies and other critical items, said Dujarric.

“Between the 6th and 12th of January, some 10,500 people received food aid in Tigray, but more than 800,000 people need to be helped every week. This is the lowest level of food assistance since operations expanded in March of last year,” he said, adding that remaining supplies can only assist 28,000 more people.

Access to health care

Only 145,000 children could be vaccinated against measles out of 800,000, said Dujarric, adding “health partners tell us that the campaign is facing serious challenges, including, of course, the lack of fuel and the lack of cash that we’ve been telling you about, and the limited cold chain capacity, and shortages of health care workers.”

Dujarric said that humanitarian response has been scaled up in accessible areas in Amhara and Afar adding over 578,000 people in Amhara received food, over 40,000 received shelter and other items in the past week.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said Tuesday that residents in the Amhara, Afar and Tigray regions are suffering from a lack of basic health services.

Red Cross said the residents are the worst affected by the year-long conflict in northern Ethiopia, noting that in some instances, patients with chronic illnesses were dying.

The World Health Organization last week joined other aid organizations working in Ethiopia in slamming a government blockade on health relief to the Tigray region.

The UN health organization lamented that Ethiopia has prevented the delivery of health supplies to Tigray since July.

The war in Ethiopia between Tigrayan and government forces has been waging on for more than a year.

Since November 2020, the bloody war between the two sides has left the economy battered, devastated infrastructure and left thousands dead and many displaced.

A joint report by the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights accuses Tigray Special Forces, Eritrean Defense Force and the Ethiopian National Defense Force of destroying infrastructure./aa

In Nigeria, Africa’s biggest oil producer and largest economy, over 60% of the population lacks access to electricity, an energy expert said Thursday. 

Abubakar Sani Sambo, the former director general of the National Energy Commission of Nigeria (NECON), expressed concern about the shortage of electricity supply in Nigeria, saying the challenges of the country’s energy sector may be the result of inconsistent policymaking and implementation.

He noted that although the impact of the lack of electricity in the country can be felt by everyone, no one is experiencing more difficulties than entrepreneurs.

Emphasizing that Nigeria has the resources to produce electricity for its people, he said: "Like other developing and developed countries in the world, we can explore our abundant solar energy to produce electricity."

He called on relevant stakeholders in the energy sector to look into alternative energy sources at the local, state and federal levels and at the same time encourage research activities based on Nigeria’s local resources and challenges.

According to experts, half of the country’s forests have been destroyed in the last 12 years due to Nigeria’s growing population as well as the lack of electricity.

There are frequent blackouts in many regions of the country that are experiencing problems with electricity production.

Most of the people, who receive electricity service for an average of four hours a day, meet their energy needs through generators./aa

Any Pentagon official directly involved in a botched airstrike in Afghanistan last year should resign, including United States Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, a Muslim-American advocacy group said Thursday.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) also called for the resignation of "any military officials who had a direct role in approving the drone strike that killed 10 civilians" in August.

The demand came a day after the Pentagon released a video of the attack.

The New York Times obtained the footage through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against U.S. Central Command, which then posted the imagery to its website. It marks the first public release of video footage of the Aug. 29 strike, which the Pentagon initially defended but later called a tragic mistake.

The videos include about 25 minutes of footage from what the Times reported were two MQ-9 Reaper drones, showing the scene of the strike prior to, during and after a missile struck a civilian car in a courtyard on a residential street. Indistinct images show individuals moving in or near the attack zone, as The Associated Press (AP) reported.

The military has said it struck what it thought was a member of the Daesh terrorist group's Afghanistan affiliate who might imminently detonate a bomb near the Kabul airport, where a hurried evacuation was still under way.

Three days earlier a suicide bombing at the airport had killed 13 U.S. troops and more than 160 Afghans. When it later acknowledged its error in the Aug. 29 drone strike, Central Command said it determined that the man driving the car had nothing to do with the Daesh group.

The man was Zemari Ahmadi, who worked for Nutrition and Education International, a U.S.-based aid organization.

CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell said the video shows "the Pentagon launched a reckless attack that was guaranteed to kill innocent people in a densely packed neighborhood."

"This attack was not simply an honest mistake or a rare occurrence; it was the latest in a long line of reckless drone strikes that have killed innocent people at homes, weddings and funerals in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and elsewhere," said Mitchell, according to remarks carried by Anadolu Agency (AA).

"Any Pentagon leaders who played a direct role in approving the horrific massacre of these innocent people – including seven children – should take responsibility by stepping down. If Secretary Austin was directly involved in approving the strike, he should resign," he added.

The Defense Department ruled out any punishment for U.S. soldiers involved in the drone strike, which triggered global condemnation. The Aug. 29 drone attack was one of the last strikes when the U.S. military was still in the war-torn country before it pulled out along with all foreign forces in August./DS

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni urged the UN Security Council on Thursday to enact reforms that would give Africa permanent representation there. 

Opening a meeting in the capital Kampala attended by officials representing 10 African Union member states, Museveni said the 1.3 billion people on the African continent deserve representation on the Security Council.

“The UN Security Council should have been and must be reformed,” he said. “This is not a favor by anybody but a right of all peoples that inhabit the planet Earth.”

"We demand our right for permanent representation on the UN Security Council. Africans and billions of Asians cannot be kept out of the UN Security Council by five member states that monopolize it now.”

He referred to the current system as being unfair, saying Africa must have a permanent seat on the Security Council to ensure that it is not used negatively against Africa.

The five permanent members of the UN Security Council are the US, China, Russia, France and Britain. The council’s 10 other seats rotate among nonpermanent members who serve two-year terms./aa ​​​​​​​

Any Pentagon official directly involved in a botched airstrike in Afghanistan last year should resign, including US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, a Muslim-American advocacy group said Thursday. 

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) also called for the resignation of "any military officials who had a direct role in approving the drone strike that killed 10 civilians" in August.

The demand came a day after the Pentagon released a video of the attack.

CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell said the video shows "the Pentagon launched a reckless attack that was guaranteed to kill innocent people in a densely-packed neighborhood."

"This attack was not simply an honest mistake or a rare occurrence; it was the latest in a long line of reckless drone strikes that have killed innocent people at homes, weddings and funerals in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, and elsewhere," said Mitchell.

"Any Pentagon leaders who played a direct role in approving the horrific massacre of these innocent people – including seven children – should take responsibility by stepping down. If Secretary Austin was directly involved in approving the strike, he should resign," he added.

The Defense Department ruled out any punishment to US soldiers involved in the drone strike, which triggered global condemnation.

The Aug. 29 drone attack was one of the last strikes when the US military was still in the war-torn country before it pulled out along with all foreign forces in August./aa

The European Parliament on Thursday called for a diplomatic and political boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics.

EU lawmakers approved a resolution that “condemns in the strongest terms the deterioration of human rights in Hong Kong,” a European Parliament statement said.

The document that won in a 585-46 vote, with 41 abstentions, urged EU member states to impose sanctions on Hong Kong and Chinese officials responsible for human rights abuses.

They also demanded that Chinese authorities repeal the National Security Law, saying it is against China’s international commitments and called for the release of political prisoners and detained protesters.

China passed the National Security Law for Hong Kong in 2020, prohibiting acts of secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces.

Lithuania, Estonia, Belgium, and Denmark announced a diplomatic and political boycott of the Olympics, while Dutch, Swedish, Austrian and Slovenian high-ranking officials canceled their participation, citing the coronavirus pandemic.

Last month, French President Emmanuel Macron called the boycott “insignificant.”

The US, UK, Canada, Australia and Japan also declared a diplomatic boycott for the Games because of the human rights situation in China.

Situation in Kazakhstan, Sudan

EU lawmakers approved two other resolutions regarding foreign affairs.

The European Parliament strongly denounced widespread violence in Kazakhstan after protests against the increase of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) prices grew into massive riots across the country.

The resolution that was approved in a 589-35 vote, with 47 abstentions, condemned Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev's “inflammatory rhetoric” of calling protesters terrorists and proposed an "international investigation into the crimes committed against the Kazakh people."

In a separate vote approved in a 629-30 vote, with 31 abstentions, the European Parliament deplored human rights abuses against protesters in Sudan following a coup in October and called on political actors to engage in a dialogue on the transition./aa

New York City Mayor Eric Adams said Thursday that he will convert his first paycheck into Bitcoin and Ethereum cryptocurrencies.

He will receive his check Friday.

"New York is the center of the world, and we want it to be the center of cryptocurrency and other financial innovations,” Adams said in a statement. "Being on the forefront of such innovation will help us create jobs, improve our economy, and continue to be a magnet for talent from all over the globe."

Adams' paycheck will automatically be converted to cryptocurrency via Coinbase, a leading cryptocurrency exchange in the US.

The then-mayor-elect said in November he would accept his first three paychecks in cryptocurrency.

"NYC is going to be the center of the cryptocurrency industry and other fast-growing, innovative industries! Just wait!" Adams said Nov. 5 on Twitter.

Bitcoin is currently above $43,100./agencies

Thousands of displaced Syrians living in tents in the country's northwest have been struggling amid heavy downpour and snowfall.

Many camps in Idlib along the frontier between Turkiye and Syria have been flooded, leading to difficulties for the hundreds of families.

Mohammed Hallaj, the director of Syria's Response Coordination Group, told Anadolu Agency that heavy rains in the countryside of Idlib and Aleppo affected civilians in at least 79 tent camps.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, heavy snowfall affected northwestern Syria on Tuesday, damaging displacement sites, tents and people’s belongings.

In a statement, it said the most pressing needs are moving the affected persons to safe places, securing means for heating, replacing destroyed tents, and providing ready-to-eat meals and winter clothes for children and families.

Ali Said, who was forcibly displaced by the Bashar Assad regime's attacks on his village in the Hama countryside three years ago, said his tent submerged due to heavy rain.

He added that many families have been displaced, and are in urgent need of supplies including tents and raincoats.

Syria has been ravaged by a civil war since early 2011 when the Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protesters.

The Idlib de-escalation zone was forged under an agreement between Turkiye and Russia. The area has been the subject of multiple cease-fire agreements, which have been frequently violated by the Assad regime and its allies.

The situation for the people in Idlib worsened when the Assad regime, backed by Russia and Iran, launched an offensive on the province, causing large-scale displacement.

Living in overcrowded tent camps or out in the open in safe areas, many are struggling to meet even their basic needs./aa