They are also a major ethnic group in Pakistan’s north and west”.
CFR says that “Pashtuns comprise a plurality in Afghanistan and are the predominant ethnic group in much of the country’s south and east.
The Taliban is made up of mainly the Pashtuns, who are the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan. What Is The Support It Enjoys Among Afghan People? The report says that the best estimates of its strength, which go back to 2017, suggest that “the group’s total manpower exceeds 200,000 individuals” and, apart from the core fighters, includes “another 90,000 members of local militias, and tens of thousands of facilitators and support elements”. How Many Fighters Does The Taliban Have?Īccording to a Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) report, the Taliban have between 55,000-85,000 full-time fighters and “the group is stronger now than at any point in the last nineteen years”.Įxperts say that while they have suffered tens of thousands of fatalities among its rank following the US invasion, the Taliban have a well-oiled recruitment network inside Afghanistan and its leadership also draws on the close to 2 million Afghan refugees in neighbouring Pakistan to fill its ranks.Ī report earlier this year by the Combating Terrorism Centre at the US Military Academy at West Point said that the group comprises “60,000 core fighters, give or take 10-20 per cent”. The group’s extortion activities also extends to kidnapping of employees and management of infrastructure companies. Taliban finances were further bolstered by the group’s expanding territorial footprint as they extort money “from a wide range of public infrastructure services, including road construction, telecommunications and road transport”. The UN report cited a member state as saying that “in 2020, profits from the mining sector earned the Taliban approximately $464 million”.īut it is the opium trade that “continues to represent the most significant source of income for the Taliban, with one estimate giving it at a total of approximately $460 million during 2020”, the UN said. “That financial independence enables the Afghan Taliban to self-fund its insurgency without the need for support from governments or citizens of other countries,” the report says, although a UN report in June 2021 said that the group also relies on “external financial support, including donations from wealthy individuals and a network of non-governmental charitable foundations also account for a significant part of Taliban income”.Įlaborating on Taliban funding, the UN report said that “the primary sources of Taliban financing remain criminal activities, including drug trafficking and opium poppy production, extortion, kidnapping for ransom, mineral exploitation and revenues from tax collection in areas under Taliban control or influence”. According to a NATO report cited by RFE/RL, “the Taliban has expanded its financial power in recent years through increased profits from the illicit drug trade, illegal mining, and exports” and made an estimated $1.6 billion in the fiscal year ending March 2020.
How Does The Taliban Fund Itself?ĭrugs, levies on movement of goods, illegal mining have all contributed to the Taliban now enjoying earnings of over $1.5 billion annually. Here’s what we know about how the Taliban funds itself and finds fighters and support on the ground. Close to 20 years of fighting with the US seems to have made little difference to the Taliban’s capabilities and, even before Washington had formally withdrawn from the scene, it has overrun the country.
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