Sangin: a province blighted by conflict

Sangin has seen some of the bloodiest fighting of the conflict in Afghanistan.

Of the 312 British troops to have died in Afghanistan since 2001, 99 were killed in the area.

The Sangin Qala district of Helmand Province is home to around 50,000 people, 14,000 of whom live in the area’s main town, Sangin.

With its fertile poppy fields, Sangin is a key location for Afghanistan’s opium trade, whilst its close proximity to the country’s main highway also makes it a centre of smuggling.

The area has long been blighted by a weak government and infighting between communities, linked to the decline of the tribal system during the civil war in the 1990s. These regional conflicts are believed to fuel local support for the Taliban.

Many residents feel the British have done too little to restore the rule of law.

Haji Akhatar Mohammad, an elder from Bostan Zoi village said: “The British had been there for a long time. They were not helpful and there was no good result from them. They didn’t understand the people and there was too much fighting.

“People are happy the British are moving,”

Sangin is situated in the south west of Afghanistan, in the valley of the Helmand River, at around 800m above sea level.

British forces handed over the neighbouring province of Musa Qala to the US in March. The area also neighbours US occupied Kajaki, home of the Kajaki dam – one of two major Hydroelectric dams in the Helmand province.

Lashkar Gah, the capital of the Helmand Province is almost 100km north west of Sangin.