Afghanistan country profile

Landlocked and mountainous, afghanistan has suffered from such persistent instability and struggle at some point of its current history that its financial system and infrastructure are in ruins, and a lot of its humans are refugees.

The taliban, who imposed strict islamic rule following a devastating civil struggle, had been ousted through a us-led invasion in 2001 but have recently been making a return.

The the world over-acknowledged government installation following the adoption of a new constitution in 2004 has struggled to increase its authority beyond the capital and to forge national solidarity.

Nato-led foreign fight troops had the principle responsibility for maintaining security after 2001, and the formal cease of nato's fight task in december 2014 became followed via an upsurge in taliban activity.

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Information
Islamic republic of afghanistan
Capital: kabul
Population 31.6 million

Place 652,864 squarekm (251,827 squaremiles)

Essential languages dari, pashto

Important faith islam

Life expectancy fifty nine years (guys), 62 years (ladies)

Currency afghani

Un, global bank
Getty pictures
Leaders
President: ashraf ghani

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Afghan leaders president ghani, right, and abdullah abdullahimage copyrightgetty snap shots
President ghani, proper, heads a cohesion authorities at the side of former rival and now leader executive abdullah abdullah, left. He changed into sworn in as president in september 2014.

He changed hamid karzai, who led the united states of america for twelve years after the taliban were overthrown in 2001.

Media
Screen seize of promo for soap on afghan tvimage copyrighttolo tv
Picture caption
Afghans now have get admission to to a huge range of media, in contrast to whilst the taliban turned into in control and destroyed tv sets
Media stores - private television stations and newspapers in particular - mushroomed following the ousting of the taliban in 2001.

Some 27 in step with cent of households have as a minimum patchy access to the net and computer literacy and possession prices are low.

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Timeline
Some key dates in afghanistan's records:

Soviet troops in kabul in 1988image copyrightgetty pictures
Image caption
Soviet troops withrew after a bloody decade fighting the afghan resistance
1979 - soviet army invades and props up communist government. Extra than a million people die inside the ensuing battle.

1989 - remaining soviet troops go away. Us- and pakistan-subsidized mujahideen push to overthrow soviet-established afghan ruler najibullah triggers devastating civil battle.

1996 - taliban seize manage of kabul and impose hard-line model of islam.

2001 - us intervenes militarily following Sep 11 assaults on the usa. Taliban are ousted from kabul and hamid karzai becomes head of an meantime electricity-sharing government.

2002 - nato assumes duty for maintaining security in afghanistan.

2004 - loya jirga adopts new charter which provides for sturdy presidency. Hamid karzai is elected president.

2014 - ashraf ghani elected president. Nato officially ends its combat mission in afghanistan, handing over to afghan forces, who face a developing insurgency.