Taliban Leadership Shake-Up at Central Bank

In a significant reshuffle, Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada has removed Hedayatullah Badri as governor of the Taliban-run Central Bank, appointing Noor Ahmad Agha as his replacement. Agha, also known as Ahmad Zia Agha, is a senior Taliban military and financial leader previously designated as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) by the U.S. for financing terrorist activities. His past roles include managing funds for explosive devices and overseeing the Taliban’s military operations in western Afghanistan. Born in 1974, Agha is on the UN sanctions list and blacklisted by both the U.S. and the European Union. The reshuffling is part of a broader trend of leadership changes within the Taliban, which included 37 changes from September 2023 to June 2024. The U.S. had previously frozen $7 billion of the Central Bank’s assets after the Taliban’s takeover in August 2021, with half directed to a humanitarian fund in Switzerland.