Sharp decline in strength reported in Afghan National Defence Forces
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KABUL - Sharp decline in strength has been reported in Afghan National Defence Forces.
For the fourth consecutive quarter, the size of Afghanistan’s National Defense and Security Forces is reported at the lowest level it has been since the Resolute Support mission began in January 2015, a US watchdog said in a report, TOLO News has reported.
The drop in size of the ANDSF has occurred in the past few months due to changes in the way troops are counted and an effort to reduce the number of so-called “ghost” or nonexistent soldiers, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) said in a report to the US Congress on July 30.
The report says that only those ANDSF personnel who have been biometrically validated in APPS are included in strength figures.
This quarter’s ANDSF strength decreased by 41,777 personnel since approximately the same period in 2018, and by 50,277 compared to about the same period in 2017.
According to the report, there are 180,869 Afghan National Army (ANA) and 91,596 Afghan National Police (ANP) personnel enrolled and accounted for in APPS as of May 25, 2019.
