Taliban’s internal rifts over power struggle continue amid uncertainty, UNSC report

The UN Security Council’s monitoring team report indicates that the Taliban leadership faces internal rifts amid a power struggle between Kandahar factions loyal to the group’s supreme leader Hibatullah Akhunzada and Kabul factions primarily controlled by the Haqqanis and headed by Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani.

The UNSC’s Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team report stated that Akhunzada retains his tight grip on all decisionmaking while Haqqani, who shares the Kabul power base with Defence Minister Mullah Mohammad Yaqub Omari, the son of Taliban founder Mullah Omar, has grown more skeptical of Akhunzada who remains uncompromising and more religiously conservative.