Afghanistan: Taliban take Mazar-i-Sharif, Ashraf Ghani calls for remobilization
Taliban forces patrol the town of Herat on August 14, 2021. REUTERS - STRINGER
Text by: RFI Follow
7 mins
According to residents contacted by AFP, the Taliban have captured Mazar-i-Sharif, the last major city in northern Afghanistan still under government control.
The Taliban begin to apply Sharia law in the conquered cities.
President Ashraf Ghani promises to remobilize his troops.
Publicity
Read more
The Taliban took control, without really fighting, of Mazar-i-Sharif, one of the last major provincial towns that was still under government control.
Afghan forces reportedly did not resist and left the city.
The Taliban had been trying to seize the capital of Balkh province for several days.
Before her, it was the cities of Asadabad, in the east of the country and Gardêz, a little further south, that the insurgents took.
According to testimonies obtained by our correspondent in Kabul, the Taliban
are reigning terror
in the territories they are wresting, and life has already changed for women.
She managed to reach a civil society activist from one of these towns taken over by the Taliban, whom we will call Amina.
Trapped
Amina did not manage to leave until the city fell to the Taliban.
Frightened, this employee of a women's rights organization is trapped and hides in her home.
“
When the Taliban took over the city
,” she says, “
I quit my job and stayed at home. They have put in place special laws against women. One of them is that we cannot go out without being accompanied by a male member of our family. We have to wear a burqa when we go out; if a woman is not dressed decently she is beaten. Girls cannot go to school after the age of 9. ”
Amina explains that Taliban fighters force young women to marry them, threatening to kill their fathers if they refuse.
She also knows a victim.
“
This young woman was my colleagues' neighbor
,” she says.
She was 18.
His father was afraid of the Taliban and he gave in.
He gave them his daughter.
"
In other cities, such as Herat, the big city in the West, they banned female students from entering university this Saturday, August 14, ordering them to return home.
Repatriation
Now, only three major cities are not in the hands of the Taliban.
These are Jalalabad in the east, Khost in the south-east, and Kabul, the capital.
But
the Taliban are closing
in on the Afghan capital. Fighting was reported in the town of Maydan Shahr. It is only 50 km from Kabul. According to the Associated Press news agency, some insurgents have even reached the district of Chahar Asiab, just 11 kilometers from Kabul. And, a sign that the Taliban are approaching, the staff of the American embassy in Kabul have been ordered to shred and burn sensitive documents, before being evacuated.
US President Joe Biden nonetheless raised the number of US troops in Kabul to 5,000, and warned the Taliban of a "
swift and strong
"
military response
to attacks against US interests. He also promised not to "
bequeath this war
" in Afghanistan to the next US president.
As tens of thousands of Afghan families, who fled the fighting, search for food on the streets of the capital, the US Marines have begun the evacuation of embassy workers from its Afghan staff.
Britain, the Netherlands, Sweden, Italy and Germany are doing the same.
The objective: to reduce the diplomatic staff on site to the strict minimum.
Other countries, such as Norway and Denmark, have preferred to temporarily close their embassies in Kabul.
Ghani promises "
remobilization
"
Without alluding to the recent Taliban conquests, President Ashraf Ghani promised in a televised address this Saturday, August 14 to motivate his troops.
“
The remobilization of our security and defense forces is our number one priority and important steps are being taken to that end
,” he pledged.
By this speech, Ashraf Ghani wants to demonstrate that he still holds the reins of the country.
It is out of the question to evoke a
possible resignation
.
On the contrary, the president speaks of "
consultations
" between the Afghan political class and international partners.
Consultations which aim, according to him, to find "
a political solution in which peace and stability
" are preserved.
These statements are however puzzling.
In particular, we do not see how Ashraf Ghani could succeed in remobilizing the Afghan army, the same troops who have fled the battlefields in recent days.
This allowed the Taliban to carry out their offensive in record time.
►
Afghanistan: the country's major cities fall into the hands of 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
Ashraf Ghani
Taliban
On the same subject
The concern and pain of Afghan refugees at the advance of the Taliban
Afghanistan: Ismail Khan, the "Lion of Herat" surrendered to the Taliban
Afghanistan: the Taliban seize the city of Ghazni, located southwest of Kabul