Afghanistan (Project Noah)

Afghanistan (Pashto/Dari: افغانستان, Afġānistān), officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located within South Asia and Central Asia. The country bordered by Pakistan in the south and east; Iran in the west; Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan in the north; and Uyghurstan, a former province of the People's Republic of China in the far northeast via the Wakhan Corridor.

Although the country has not yet reported infections, fighting between differing factions has made it very dangerous for refugees to attempt to settle in.

Pre-Outbreak
The region in which modern day Afghanistan is situated served as a geostrategic location for merchants and travelers coming from East and South Asia on their way to the Middle East. Marco Polo, the Venetian traveler, is said to have crossed from South Asia to China via the Wakhan Corridor in the northeast. Because Afghanistan served as bridge from East Asia to the South and West, it has seen a diverse cultures and religions, with a blend of Hindu, Buddhist, and Islamic customs.

Because of its strategic location, Afghanistan has been a target of various invaders, as well as a source from which local powers invaded neighboring regions to form their own empires. Ahmad Shah Durrani created the Durrani Empire in 1747, which is considered the beginning of modern Afghanistan. Its capital was shifted later from Kandahar to Kabul and most of its territories ceded to neighboring empires. In the late 19th century, Afghanistan became a buffer state in "The Great Game" played between the British Indian Empire and Russian Empire. On August 19, 1919, following the third Anglo-Afghan war, the country regained independence from the United Kingdom over its foreign affairs.

Afghanistan suffered a series of coup attempts in the 1970s. In 1979, the Soviet Union invaded the country to militarily back the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. This was met with resistance from the Mujahideen, a group of insurgents which conducted guerrilla warfare against the Soviets within the mountains and desserts of Afghanistan. They were covertly backed by the United States, the United Kingdom, West Germany, Iran, China, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia. In a manner similar to the Vietnam War fought by the United States a decade prior, the Soviet Union suffered it's own "Vietnam" in Afghanistan after 10 years of fighting. In February 1989, under Mikhail Gorbachev, Soviet forces were withdrawn from Afghanis