Afghanistan: concern in Kabul as the Taliban seize regional capitals

Displaced families collecting food in Kabul on August 9, 2021. They fled Kunduz and Takhar provinces due to fighting between the Taliban and Afghan security forces.

AFP - WAKIL KOHSAR

Text by: RFI Follow

7 mins

Nine provincial capitals fell to the Taliban.

Concern is growing in Kabul and across the country.

For its part, the European Union will seize the Afghan issue.

Six EU member states call on Brussels to maintain deportations of Afghan migrants, even as fighting and population displacement intensify.

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The population is devastated and frightened.

The inhabitants of Kabul are riveted to their phones, to their television sets.

They follow the meteoric advance of the Taliban in astonishment.

And they see in Kabul the tragic result of the capture of large parts of the territory by the Taliban since thousands of families have found refuge in the streets of the capital, says

our

correspondent in Kabul

,

Sonia Ghezali

.

Women with their children are installed in a park in the center, near the green zone where all the foreign embassies and the presidential palace are located.

Hundreds of families are on a vacant lot in the north of the capital.

They are all from northern Afghanistan, some from the east, they have fled the fighting.

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: Afghanistan: the Taliban continue to advance but Biden “does not regret” the withdrawal

They live in great poverty, despite the outbursts of solidarity from the population in Kabul.

The atmosphere is heavy, Afghan journalists and government employees report receiving threats by telephone.

The population fears the worst.

Taliban advance north and west

The Taliban held nine of Afghanistan's 34 provincial capitals on Wednesday morning after conquering two new ones the day before in the west and north, causing civilians to flee en masse in front of their rapid advance: Farah, in the west, and Pul-e Khumri in the north fell into the hands of the insurgents on Tuesday.

Since Friday, they have chained the catches, recalls Agence France-Presse: Zaranj, in the southwest, Sheberghan, in the north, stronghold of the famous warlord Abdul Rashid Dostom, and especially Kunduz, the big city in the north. -est, as well as three other northern capitals, Taloqan, Sar-e-Pul and Aibak.

The ninth provincial capital to fall into their hands in less than a week was the city of Faizabad, in the far northeast of the country.

Thousands of displaced people across the country

The violence has forced tens of thousands of civilians to flee their homes across the country, with the Taliban accused of numerous atrocities in places under their control. Some 359,000 people have been displaced in Afghanistan because of the fighting since the start of the year, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). At least 183 civilians were killed and 1,181 injured, including children, in a month in the towns of Lashkar Gah, Kandahar, Herat, in the west, and Kunduz, the UN said on Tuesday. These are only victims that could be documented.

The Taliban launched this offensive in May, at the start of the final withdrawal of American and foreign forces, but their advance has accelerated in recent days with the capture of several urban centers.

The departure of international forces must be completed by August 31, twenty years after their intervention in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.

Although hopes are slim that the talks will lead to a concrete result, the American envoy, Zalmay Khalilzad, was to urge the Taliban " 

to cease their military offensive and to negotiate a political agreement

 ".

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: Afghanistan: Unicef ​​concerned about the escalation of violence against children

Six EU member states call for continued deportations of Afghan migrants

The position shows how defensive Europeans are on the issue of migration even when it comes to a country at war.

The Belgian, Danish, German, Greek, Dutch and Austrian governments want to maintain the return of Afghan migrants despite the call from the government in Kabul to stop deporting Afghan migrants for three months, specifies

Béatrice Léveillé

,

of the International Service of RFI

.

The letter sent by these six Member States to the European Commission asking it not to suspend deportations of Afghan migrants shows that Europeans are on the defensive. It is, according to them, to protect against the risks created by the suspension of the expulsions of failed Afghan asylum seekers, while the Taliban are rapidly gaining ground in their country.

“ 

Stopping deportations sends the wrong signal that could encourage even more Afghan citizens to leave their countries for the European Union,

 ” these member states say in their joint letter.

Since 2015, 570,000 Afghans have applied for asylum in the European Union.

They ask the Commission to study the possibility of providing these refugees with better support, by strengthening its cooperation with Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran.

The issue is expected to be debated at a crisis meeting of EU home affairs ministers on August 18.

This meeting was originally scheduled to discuss the situation in Lithuania, a country overwhelmed by the influx of Iraqi migrants arriving through Belarus.

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