Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada has reassigned five senior Taliban officials, including two ministers and two deputy ministers, to new posts in a reshuffle that continues a pattern of rotating existing figures seen over the past four years.
According to his decree, Abdul Latif Mansour, who has served as Taliban minister for energy and water since September 2021, was appointed as minister for rural rehabilitation and development.
He replaces Mohammad Younus Akhundzada, who was named the new minister for energy and water after serving as minister for rural rehabilitation and development since September 2021.
Under the same decree, Abdul Haq Hamkar, the Taliban’s former financial and administrative deputy minister at the Ministry of Public Works, was appointed head of the state-run electricity company, Breshna.
Abdul Bari Omari, who led Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat, the country’s power distributor, was appointed head of protocol at the Taliban foreign ministry.
The decree also named Mohammad Younus Rashid, formerly Taliban deputy minister for youth affairs at the Ministry of Information and Culture, as the new financial and administrative deputy minister of the Taliban at the Ministry of Public Works.
The reshuffle reflects a pattern under Taliban rule of rotating senior officials between ministries rather than bringing in new figures.
The Middle East Institute has said in previous assessments that more than 90% of the Taliban’s leadership and cabinet members come from the same ethnic group and that no women hold cabinet positions.
