Six days after the Taliban seizure of power in Afghanistan, Saturday, August 21, thousands of Afghan families were still congregating in front of Kabul airport with the hope of miraculously boarding a plane.
Footage shot by UK news channel Sky News shows the bodies of at least three people, presumably crushed by crowds pushing against airport gates, caught between US soldiers on one side and fighters Islamists on the other. Sky reporter Stuart Ramsay, who was at the airport, said people in front of the crowd had been “Crushed” and that the doctors rushed from one wounded to another. The images also show many injured.
The pressure is increasing to obtain the remaining places, while, according to a report by a group of experts working for the United Nations (UN), the Taliban have “Priority lists” Afghans wanted, the most threatened being army, police and intelligence officers.
The report, written by the Norwegian Center for Global Analyzes that Agence France-Presse (AFP) was able to consult, reports that the Taliban are carrying out “Targeted visits” among wanted persons and their families. Their checkpoints also filter Afghans in major cities and those wishing to access Kabul airport.
New incarnation of desperation, video of US soldier lifting baby over barbed wire overlooking airport went around the world. “The parents asked the marines to take care of the baby because he was sick”, explained John Kirby, spokesman for the Pentagon. “It was an act of compassion”, he added, a few days after American planes took off despite the presence of Afghans in their landing gear, causing several fatal falls.
The gigantic evacuation operation in Kabul, described by Joe Biden as “One of the most difficult in history”, has been mobilizing for a week, in chaotic conditions, planes from around the world, to evacuate diplomats, other foreigners and Afghans through the airport in the Afghan capital, fleeing a country fallen into the hands of the Taliban.
The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, on Saturday urged all countries, first and foremost European countries, to welcome some of the Afghan refugees exfiltrated from Kabul and assured the member states of the European Union (EU) which will do so with the financial support of Europe. It is not yet clear how many EU member countries have pledged to welcome Afghan refugees to their soil and whether some governments have refused.
The United States, which plans to evacuate more than 30,000 Americans and Afghan civilians via its bases in Kuwait and Qatar, claims to have already released more than 17,000 people since August 14. The US military also deployed three helicopters on Friday to evacuate 169 Americans from a hotel near the airport.
This is the first time that the US military has demonstrated its ability to leave the secure enclosure of the airport to come to the aid of people wishing to leave the country. The group planned to walk to the airport but a crowd blocked access. In a bulletin issued by the United States Embassy on Saturday, instructions were passed to American nationals “To avoid traveling to the airport” Due to “Potential security threats” outside the site, which are not detailed. Only people who have received “Individual instructions from a government official” are invited to do so. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby declined to elaborate on the nature of these threats, but said they could evolve “From one hour to the next”. “We continue to have regular communications with the Taliban leaders in Kabul, especially those in charge of the crossing points at the airport”, he added.
Germany, which has already secured 1,600 people, also plans to deploy two helicopters to secure evacuations, or even come to the aid of people in emergency situations. “Dangerous situations” or remote places. A German civilian was shot and wounded on his way to the airport, but his life is not in danger.
A thousand Afghans have been evacuated to Italy in the past five days, or are in the process of being, waiting at the airport, the Italian defense ministry said on Saturday. The British government, for its part, said it had evacuated 1,615 people, including 399 British, 320 diplomatic staff and 402 Afghans.
Efforts also led by France: a fifth flight organized by France to evacuate French and Afghan nationals from Afghanistan arrived Saturday evening at Roissy-Charles-De-Gaulle airport, near Paris, from Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. France has so far evacuated around 500 people via these rotations.
Romania, she sheltered more than 260 people, when Spain for its part evacuated 158 Afghans, most of whom arrived on Friday evening. Austria, which does not have its own means of evacuation, managed to get two nationals out, but 85 other Austrians and Afghans residing in Austria and seeking to escape remain stranded.
On Saturday evening, the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, ruled ” impossible “ to evacuate all Afghan collaborators by August 31 and deplored that the security measures taken by the United States at Kabul airport are hindering this evacuation. “The problem is access to the airport. The Americans’ control and security measures are very strong. We complained. We asked them to show more flexibility. We do not manage to get our employees through ”, he confided in an interview with Agence France-Presse.
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