Afghanistan’s local government directorate on Wednesday announced areas expected to transfer from NATO to Afghan control as part of a second phase of transition due to end across the country in 2014.
Badakhshan, Badghis, Balkh, Daykundi, Ghazni, Ghor, Helmand, Herat, Kabul, Laghman, Nangarhar, Nimroz, Parwan, Samangan, Sar-i-pul, Takhar and Wardak provinces are likely to be announced by President Hamid Karzai at next month’s regional conference in Istanbul, said the body’s director Abdul Khaliq Farahi.
Most of Herat and Kabul were already handed over to Afghan control in a first wave of transition in July, but some districts remain under NATO’s remit.
Karzai “will announce the names of the provinces… at Istanbul conference on November 2,” Farahi, director of the Independent Directorate for Local Government, told a press conference in Kabul.
“In the second phase of transition there are 17 provinces, but some of them (will transfer authority for) the entire province, others include districts,” Farahi said.
He said a meeting would take place on Wednesday to listen to the views and concerns of local leaders from the likely areas for transition, and could lead to the removal of some troubled districts from the list.
But the names of the provinces are unlikely to be changed, he said.
NATO combat troops are scheduled to withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of 2014, by which time Afghan forces should be responsible for national security.
