Western Sahara
male: 5,376
female: 5,280 (2010 est.)
Yemen
male: 279,283
female: 269,824 (2010 est.)
Zambia
male: 151,586
female: 150,839 (2010 est.)
Zimbabwe
male: 155,117
female: 152,875 (2010 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 and Washington, D.C., 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. Karzai was re-elected in August
2009 for a second term. 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.