Western Sahara
male: 4,796
female: 4,679 (2009 est.)
Yemen
male: 273,624
female: 263,402 (2009 est.)
Zambia
male: 149,567
female: 148,889 (2009 est.)
Zimbabwe
male: 149,592
female: 149,717 (2009 est.)
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Field Listing :: Background
This entry usually highlights major historic events and current
issues and may include a statement about one or two key future
trends.
Country
Background
Afghanistan
Ahmad Shah DURRANI unified the Pashtun tribes and
founded Afghanistan in 1747. The country served as a buffer between
the British and Russian empires until it won independence from
notional British control in 1919. A brief experiment in democracy
ended in a 1973 coup and a 1978 Communist counter-coup. The Soviet
Union invaded in 1979 to support the tottering Afghan Communist
regime, touching off a long and destructive war. The USSR withdrew
in 1989 under relentless pressure by internationally supported
anti-Communist mujahedin rebels. A series of subsequent civil wars
saw Kabul finally fall in 1996 to the Taliban, a hardline
Pakistani-sponsored movement that emerged in 1994 to end the
country's civil war and anarchy. Following the 11 September 2001
terrorist attacks in New York City, a US, Allied, and anti-Taliban
Northern Alliance military action toppled the Taliban for sheltering
Osama BIN LADIN. The UN-sponsored Bonn Conference in 2001
established a process for political reconstruction that included the
adoption of a new constitution, a presidential election in 2004, and
National Assembly elections in 2005. In December 2004, Hamid KARZAI
became the first democratically elected president of Afghanistan and
the National Assembly was inaugurated the following December.
Despite gains toward building a stable central government, a
resurgent Taliban and continuing provincial instability -
particularly in the south and the east - remain serious challenges
for the Afghan Government.