Afghanistan

An Afghan rape victim who fled to France en-route for Britain was allegedly tracked down and stabbed in one eye in an assault by her husband while she waited in vain for official permission to join her sister, a British national, as part of a family reunion.

A book just published in France details the tragic story of how hundreds of interpreters employed by the French army during its operations in Afghanistan were refused safe sanctuary after it pulled out of the country, abandoning them and their families to threats of retaliation by the Taliban and other groups. While France is not the only country previously engaged in Afghanistan to have subsequently betrayed its interpreters – called tarjuman in the Dari language – the investigation by journalists Brice Andlauer and Quentin Müllern offers a rare insight into the hypocrisy and cynicism of governments, far removed and insensitive to those involved in waging their war on the ground. Mediapart publishes here a telling extract from their book Tarjuman, une trahison française (‘Tarjuman, a French betrayal’).

Abdullah Dilsouz, a 15-year-old Afghan who had a legal right to enter the UK under family reunification legislation, was one of three asylum-seekers to be killed over recent weeks on the roads around the French port, as NGOs say migrants are taking increasing risks to cross the Channel amid worsening living conditions.

Rob Lawrie, 49, stands trial in Boulogne on Thursday for trying to smuggle young Afghan girl from miserable migrant camp to join her aunt in UK. 

Threatened at home, only 73 of the 258 former Afghan auxiliaries in French army who requested visas to live in France have been granted them.

Russian freelance photographer Sergey Ponomarev has spent the last two years covering events in the Middle East, Afghanistan and Ukraine. His award-winning work has been regularly featured in The New York Times and French weekly Paris Match. He began his career with Associated Press in Moscow in 2003, initially focusing on Russian society and culture before covering the 2006 conflict between Israel and the Lebanese-based Hezbollah group, and later, in 2011, the Libyan revolution. A freelance since 2012, the 34-year-old has continued his reporting of conflict zones, from the civil war in Syria, from Gaza and Israel during the 2014 Israeli offensive in Gaza codenamed ‘Protective Edge’, and the Ukraine, during both the uprising that toppled former president Viktor Yanukovych in February 2014 and the subsequent pro-Russian separatist conflict in the east of the country. A collection of his work is currently being showcased in Paris, at the Galerie Iconoclastes (see details bottom of page) in an exhibition on until June 9th. Mediapart presents here below a selection of 15 compelling and often disturbing photos from those on display, and which vividly illustrate both the horrors of war and the staggering capacity of peoples to retrieve a semblance of normality amid surrounding turmoil.

Around 150 French soldiers who helped run military airport hand over responsibility to Turkish unit working under the new NATO mission.

Explosion, which killed one man, occurred during performance of Heartbeat: Silence After the Explosion - a condemnation of suicide attacks.

One of the men detained, a freelance photographer, managed to escape from the group who had taken him captive last November.

Defence minister's planned surprise New Year's Eve visit to Afghanistan is revealed in clumsy PR release by Breton firm supplying pancakes to troops.

Departure comes two years before a deadline for all NATO combat forces to withdraw, hastened by attacks and a change of government in Paris.

Death toll of French armed forces in Afghanistan rises to 88 after a soldier dies from wounds after a Taliban ambush in Kapisa province.

President Hollande's pledge to withdraw all French troops from Afghanistan this year begins with formal ceremony, two years before NATO pullout.

Soldier who killed five French soldiers in January during a joint operation in Kapisa province has been sentenced to death by a military court.