October 10, 2000

A three-day cease-fire is called to allow UN medical officers to continue providing polio vaccinations for children displaced by the fighting. A massive campaign to immunize approximately 4.5 million children in Afghanistan, one of only 30 countries where the disease still exists, began in early June.

Late October 2000

A ban on the farming of opium poppies, from which heroin is derived, is introduced by the Taliban authorities.