#Thousands #fleeing #hostile #Taliban #northern #Afghanistan
When fighting broke out between Taliban forces and a renegade group led by one of their former commanders in northern Afghanistan last month, Zahra and her family fled to the mountains.
For days they walked over the rocky terrain, unsure of what lay ahead or when they could return to the Balkhab district of their home in Sar-e Pol province, where clashes erupted.
“We didn’t want to be caught…we could all have been killed,” said Zahra, 35, asking that a pseudonym be used for security reasons.
Zahra’s family are among thousands who have fled the conflict between the Taliban and fighters loyal to Mahdi Mujahid, the group’s former intelligence chief for Bamiyan.
Ethnicity, religious sectarianism and a struggle for a share of Balkhab’s lucrative coal resources are at the heart of the fighting.
“All these factors work together to fuel the conflict,” Australia-based political scientist Nematullah Bizhan told AFP.
Mujahid, a Shia Hazara, joined the predominantly Sunni and Pashtun Taliban in 2019 and was appointed to his post shortly after the hard-line Islamists seized power last August.
Afghanistan’s Shia Hazaras have faced persecution for decades, with the Taliban accused of community abuse when they first ruled from 1996 to 2001.
They are also the target of attacks by the group “Islamic State”, who consider them heretics.
Mujahid’s appointment was initially seen as supporting the Taliban’s claim to be more inclusive to non-Pashtuns, but he soon ran afoul of the leadership.
The group routinely denies reports of infighting within its ranks, but in June local media said Mujahid had split from the Taliban leadership as Kabul sought greater control of the coal business.
– ‘History of Resistance’ –
Balkhab is home to several coal mines and demand has risen sharply in recent months as Pakistan – in the grip of an energy crisis partly caused by rising oil prices – ramps up imports for fuel-fired power plants.
Local Taliban commanders were known to tax trucks on their way to Pakistan — as officials from the previous government did before them — but when Mujahid resisted Kabul’s efforts to curb the practice, they fired him.
“Balhab has a long history of resisting the government,” said analyst Bizhan, adding that the region also fought heavily against the Taliban during its first reign.
According to the United Nations, while fighting lasted only a few days in June, at least 27,000 people were displaced – almost all Hazara.
The result is a humanitarian crisis that aid organizations are now grappling with.
“We used to sleep thirsty with an empty stomach and wake up in the morning and start running again,” said Zahra, whose family walked for almost two weeks before finding refuge in a village mosque in Bamiyan.
The family of Barat Ali Subhani, another Balkhab resident, has taken refuge in the same mosque.
“We didn’t have anything with us. We just walked in the clothes we wore,” Subhani said.
His family of seven – including five children – walked for four days before a shepherd led them to the mosque.
“He saved us,” Subhani said.
“We didn’t have anything. We thought we were probably going to die.”
– cut off from help –
In the town of Duzdanchishma in Bamiyan, Najiba Mirzae has spent days treating people who have fled Balkhab.
Many are pregnant women who suffer from diarrhea, nausea and breathing difficulties while traveling through the mountains, said Mirzae, director of a local hospital.
Several UN agencies have tried to respond but have not been able to reach all of the displaced people as many are still living in the mountains.
“We couldn’t reach the area even after five and a half hours of walking because the mules couldn’t pass,” said Noryalai, who led a UNICEF team on a relief mission.
In Balkhab, according to Defense Ministry spokesman Enayatullah Khwarizmi, Mujahid and his supporters have fled to the mountains and fighting has stopped.
But rights group Amnesty International accused Taliban forces of carrying out summary executions of civilians there – a charge Kabul has denied.
“People are scared, that’s why they’re still in the mountains,” one man told AFP, asking not to be identified.
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