Afghanistan is Turning Against the Taliban.

Five years into Taliban rule, Afghanistan faces systemic collapse as the regime fails to uphold its social contract, leaving 74% of the population in extreme poverty and suffering from acute food insecurity. This failure has triggered a shift in the resistance landscape, moving from isolated, minority-led efforts to a decentralized, nationwide insurgency. Groups like the National Resistance Front, the Afghanistan Freedom Front, and the Afghan United Front now employ asymmetric guerrilla tactics, increasingly operating within former Taliban strongholds like Kandahar. This resistance is bolstered by deepening internal rifts between the Taliban’s Kandahar and Kabul factions, alongside a resurgent Islamic State Khorasan. As the Taliban’s grip weakens, these diverse, non-coordinated movements are effectively unraveling the regime’s control, signaling a potential transition toward a more volatile, multi-front conflict that threatens the stability of the current theocratic government.