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From Our Own Correspondent: Afghanistan hopes - and despairs

Magazines & Reviews

27/02/2021 GMT

Afghanistan hopes - and despairs

BBC World Service - From Our Own Correspondent, Afghanistan hopes - and despairs

As attacks rock Kabul, the President is defiant. Plus tales from Myanmar and Wuhan, China

As attacks rock Kabul, the President insists on the need for optimism. Plus: scenes from Myanmar's mass protests and the WHO investigation in Wuhan hunting the origins of Covid19

Under the terms of a deal made with the Taliban in Doha in 2020, the US agreed to start pulling its troops out of Afghanistan over the next two months. There were hopes that nearly four decades of war could be ended. But in recent months, the level of lethal violence in Afghanistan has risen - and civilians, judges, journalists, as well as police, Afghan and US soldiers, have all been targeted. The Taliban deny responsibility for the gun and bomb attacks which have been shaking Afghanistan's cities, particularly Kabul, almost every day. Many people - particularly the educated and the young - despair of making a better country, and are now desperate to leave, seeing no chance for peace. Yet when the BBC's Lyse Doucet recently interviewed the Afghan President Ashraf Ghani recently, she found him resolute - and still insistent that there's room for optimism.

Pascale Harter introduces this and other insights, impressions and analysis from writers around the world. 

The mass protests in Myanmar against the recent military coup have used wit and solidarity, as well as public anger - from meme-heavy placards to elaborate costume - to call people together, despite the dangers of facing down the junta. On the streets of Yangon, Ben Dunnant has seen Burmese citizens of many different generations, professions and religions uniting to demand a return to democracy, the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and the end of full control by the armed forces.

And Stephen McConnell reveals what it was really like to be part of the press pack shadowing the World Health Organisation's team of scientists around the Chinese city of Wuhan. The experts were visiting to try and uncover the truth about the origins of the coronavirus pandemic. How much were they really allowed to discover - and how much evidence was their investigation allowed to see?


 
Image: An Afghan boy kisses the national flag. Credit: European Pressphoto Agency-EFE/Hedayatullah Amid)

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