At least two people were killed in Afghanistan’s north-eastern province of Badakhshan during protests against a government-led poppy eradication campaign, local officials told Afghan media on Saturday.
Hundreds of residents in the Argo district blocked a key road over the past two days in an attempt to prevent the eradication efforts.
A spokesman for the Badakhshan police, Ehsanullah Kamgar, blamed what he described as “opportunists and drug traffickers” for inciting the unrest. Authorities said the highway, which was temporarily closed, has since reopened and that security forces have brought the situation under control.
Local farmers reportedly said the destruction of their crops, combined with severe poverty and limited alternative livelihoods, could worsen humanitarian conditions in the region. Badakhshan has witnessed similar protests during eradication efforts in the past years.
In 2022, the Taliban’s supreme leader issued a decree banning the cultivation, production and trafficking of drugs nationwide, a move that sharply reduced opium production in Afghanistan.
During the US invasion of Afghanistan, the country became the world’s primary source of opium, accounting for about 90% of the global supply.