Taliban Sell Nearly 9,000 kg of Gemstones in Nuristan

The Taliban’s Directorate of Mines and Petroleum in Nuristan province has announced the extraction and sale of nearly 9,000 kilograms of precious and semi-precious stones from local mines through a bidding process.

According to the directorate, the stones, valued at a total of 95,123,500 Afghanis, were auctioned in Du Ab district of Nuristan on Tuesday, September 16.

Sayed Rahim Umeir, the Taliban’s head of the Nuristan Mines Department, said that 150 domestic traders and several Chinese businessmen participated in the bidding.

The Taliban stated that more than 9.5 million Afghanis in revenue from the auction have been transferred to their treasury, but did not clarify where the remaining proceeds went. The lack of transparency and absence of independent oversight has raised serious questions about the management of the country’s natural resources under Taliban rule.