Afghanistan: "The Taliban are trying to convince young people to join them"

Audio 01:20

A man on the Afghan side of the border with Pakistan holds a Taliban flag (illustrative image).

Banaras KHAN AFP

Text by: RFI Follow

4 min

In Afghanistan, many people fled to the capital Kabul the violence and the threat of forcible recruitment of insurgents.

RFI met some of them in an emergency accommodation center which accommodates around sixty families of internally displaced persons due to the recent fighting. 

Publicity

Read more

With our correspondent in Kabul,

 Sonia Ghezali

with the collaboration of

Nazir Afzali

Sarah, a mother of eight, fled Kunduz in northeastern Afghanistan, with no hope for the future.

In her village, she says, families are torn apart: “

 Men fight their own sons and children take up arms against their father.

Because there are men who fight on the side of the Taliban and their son on the side of the army.

Or the contrary.

Sometimes it's brothers fighting against each other.

 "

Ghoreza, a 19-year-old mechanic, also fled Kunduz.

He left his garage and his customers there.

But the pressure from the Taliban who captured the area had grown too strong.

In the villages, the Taliban are trying to convince young people to join them,” he

 says.

 They say that the army, the government are disbelievers, that they are bad Muslims.

They manipulate them psychologically.

They do this in my village and all around.

I studied, I know they are lying.

So I always kept my distance from them. 

"

Several young men like him fled to avoid being forcibly enlisted by the

Taliban

According to the United Nations refugee agency, 270,000 people have

left their homes

since January, bringing the total number of displaced people to more than 3.5 million.

See also: Afghanistan: women again under duress in areas taken over by the Taliban

Newsletter

Receive all international news directly in your mailbox

I subscribe

Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application

google-play-badge_FR

  • Afghanistan

  • Taliban