KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – The UN mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) announced that it has convened the inaugural meeting of its counter-narcotics working group, as a follow-up to the third meeting of Special Envoys on Afghanistan in Doha, Qatar.
In a press release on Thursday, UNAMA stated that the establishment of the working group follows the recommendations of the independent assessment of Afghanistan submitted to the UN Security Council last year. The assessment, conducted by the UN Special Coordinator for Afghanistan, Feridun Sinirlioğlu, was endorsed by the Security Council in December.
UNAMA noted that the establishment of the working group is part of its ongoing efforts to engage more effectively with the Taliban on critical issues impacting the people of Afghanistan, including narcotics.
Roza Otunbayeva, Special Representative of the Secretary-General and head of UNAMA was quoted in the press release as saying, “Counter-narcotics is an issue of critical importance for Afghanistan, impacting both rural communities and regional peace and stability.”
The UN agency did not provide additional details about the meeting and the members of the working group.
The establishment of a working group on counter-narcotics was one of two working groups agreed upon during the third UN-hosted meeting of special envoys on Afghanistan and the Taliban, held in Doha in June.
The inaugural meeting of the working group comes a day after the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) reported a 30% increase in opium production in Afghanistan compared to the previous year.
In a report released on Wednesday, November 27, UNODC stated that 433 tons of opium were produced in Afghanistan in 2024. Furthermore, the value of this year’s opium harvest is estimated at $260 million, reflecting a 130% increase compared to 2023.
According to the report, despite a 30% increase in opium production this year compared to 2023, overall production remains 93% lower than before the Taliban’s drug ban in 2022.
In 2022, the Taliban, which had financed its insurgency for decades through the drug trade, banned the cultivation of poppy in Afghanistan, the primary source of opium used in heroin production.
Since that time, both the Taliban and the United Nations have consistently reported a significant decline in drug cultivation in Afghanistan.
Regional countries, particularly Iran and Tajikistan, however, report that they have not observed any decline in the volume of drug trafficking from Afghanistan. They claim that opioids like heroin and opium, as well as Afghan-made methamphetamine, continue to be smuggled into their countries.
