Afghanistan – Fifth anniversary of the fall of Kabul

Five years after the Taliban’s seizure of power, France reaffirms its unfailing solidarity with the Afghan people. Five years on, Afghanistan still faces a deep humanitarian, economic and security crisis, which continues to worsen and is also threatening the stability of the region.

The population’s fundamental rights and freedoms, particularly those of women and girls, are continually being rolled back. Women and girls are excluded from secondary and higher education. The Taliban are introducing more discriminatory laws and measures to completely erase them from the public space. They are victims of a brutal crackdown, as in Herat recently. This is no longer solely discrimination but a gender-based system of oppression. France utterly condemns these very serious human rights violations and calls on the Taliban to comply with their international obligations.

Five years on, France remains mobilized alongside the Afghan people. It has supported the French Medical Institute for Mothers and Children in Kabul since 2021. It also supports several NGOs working for the people of Afghanistan, particularly women and children, which in 2025 enabled more than 100,000 free medical consultations, treatment for acute malnutrition in more than 3,000 children under the age of five and access to good-quality educational services for 35,000 girls. Since 2021, France has conducted six humanitarian aid delivery operations, including one in partnership with Qatar, which sent nearly 100 tonnes of essential humanitarian aid (medicines in particular), the last of which took place in April 2026 to combat child malnutrition.

The fight against impunity for violations of fundamental rights and freedoms is a priority for France. Along with its European partners, it secured the creation by the Human Rights Council in Geneva of an independent international mechanism to document and investigate the most serious crimes committed in Afghanistan, including violations of women’s and girls’ rights. France is making active efforts to get this mechanism up and running as soon as possible.

France is also continuing its commitment to providing education for young Afghan men and women who are currently deprived of it. It is offering them the possibility of studying in our country by benefiting from grants. In 2025, 23 Afghan grant holders, including 16 women, were studying in France with grants from the French Government. In 2026, 12 new grants have been awarded to date, including 9 to women.

France also remains true to its commitment to protect people forced to flee their country. Since 2021, more than 17,000 Afghan women and men, threatened because of their links to our country or their commitment [to it], have been welcomed on our soil.

France reaffirms its wholehearted support for UNAMA and its new special representative, Ms Rabab Fatima. France will remain vigilant: no normalization [of relations] with the Taliban can be envisaged as long as they do not comply with their international obligations – as set out in United Nations Security Council Resolution 2593 – on human rights, the fight against terrorism, and inclusive governance.