Nili, Daikundi
Nili is a city in central Afghanistan, serving as the capital of Daikundi Province since 2004. It is connected by a road network with Bamyan in neighboring Bamyan Province to the northeast and Tarinkot in Uruzgan Province to the south.
Nili has a total land area of, and an estimated population of around 46,681 people. Although the majority are Hazaras, members of other neighboring ethnic groups are also in the city.
The city, which has over 2,000 houses and businesses, is within the Nili District and the Hazarajat region. It sits at above sea level. The Nili Airport is located a few miles away from the town center known as Gul-e-Badam Square.
Nili is an urban village in central Afghanistan in which the majority of the land is not built-up. Barren land is the largest land use and account for 79% of total land area. There are only 239 hectares of built-up land use, of which 35% is residential and 40% is vacant plots.
History
Nili became the capital of Daikundi Province in March of 2004. Prior to that, it was an ordinary town within the pre-2004 larger Uruzgan Province. Due to its geographical inaccessibility and harsh winter, it was not until April 2007 that the United Nations opened a UNAMA office.In December 2008, then-President Hamid Karzai selected Azra Jafari as mayor of Nili, which made her Afghanistan's first female mayor.
On 14 August 2021, Nili was seized by Taliban forces, becoming the twenty-fourth provincial capital to be captured by them as part of the wider 2021 Taliban offensive.