Afghanistan: at Kabul airport, the "miracle" or the "real nightmare"
In this photo provided by the US Marine Corps, a boy walks through an evacuee checkpoint at Hamid Karzai International Airport, Kabul, August 18, 2021. AP - Staff Sgt.
Victor Mancilla
Text by: RFI Follow
9 mins
The Taliban accuse the United States of being responsible for the chaos around Kabul airport, where at least seven civilians were killed in the stampede, as thousands continue to crowd in panic to try to climb board a plane and leave the country.
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A week after the Taliban seizure of power in Afghanistan, thousands of people were still trying this Sunday, August 22 to flee their country at the risk of their lives, while the operations of evacuations from foreign countries continue under difficult conditions.
According to witnesses on the spot, the Taliban, who are getting impatient, would have regained a little control this Sunday after the chaotic scenes of Saturday, by ordering people to line up.
But the situation is still almost impossible to manage, with very difficult conditions there.
Vehicles allowed into the airport are scarce, and often crowded by all those who stay outside, passport in hand, and begging for the chance to leave.
The "miracle" is accomplished
Our special correspondent on site,
Vincent Souriau
, indicates that the situation is not the same inside the airport as in the surroundings.
Inside the airport, it is a broom of well-regulated planes, large military aircraft from several countries.
American planes, but also German, Australian and Qatari planes and lines of Afghan nationals calmly escorted by special forces.
They are delighted to finally be able to leave, they wave, they smile, they show their children, they want their photos to be taken.
It is a lot of relief for them, but there is also the pain of those who leave their country.
“
I dream of being an astronaut because Afghanistan has never had one,” says a student.
But I have to leave, I have to leave my country and I don't know when I can come back.
"
For these Afghans, the "miracle" is accomplished, the one that thousands of their compatriots are still waiting for, massed a few hundred meters away, around the Kabul airport, between the barbed wire that separates the Taliban and the Americans. .
The situation is chaotic.
People died in crowd movements.
The humanitarian situation is dramatic.
Those who are there are suffering from the heat, the lack of water and food.
All deplore the lack of military supervision amid extreme tension due to the presence of the Taliban.
►
To read also: Evacuations from Afghanistan: a gigantic airlift mobilizes planes from all over the world
"A baby crushed in a crowd movement"
At the microphone of RFI, an American marine in charge of evacuations testifies on the tarmac of the despair of the Afghans who seek to leave the country: “
People are desperate, they know that their time is running out so they try to get into the airport on the morning. As fast as possible. I did not go to stand guard at the doors. I know if I go it will break my heart. But I asked questions around me: I was told that a baby was run over in a crowd movement, his mother picked up the body and threw it in the river and had to continue on his way as if nothing had happened. Another woman, suffocating, died in the crowd. There are a lot of injured people and we try to regulate that as much as we can.
"
France, too, continues to repatriate its nationals as well as Afghans, but in insufficient number, according to political leaders and associations who demonstrated this Sunday in Paris.
Among those still stranded in Kabul is Mansour, a naturalized French Afghan, his wife and three children.
They had come to visit family in the country and found themselves trapped with the capture of the city by the Taliban.
They tried to enter the airport on Saturday, without success.
"My son was injured"
“
We were told that we could go to the airport with the children without taking any luggage, only with small cookies and water,”
says Mansour, joined by Camille Marigaux, journalist for the international service of RFI.
And if you find foreign soldiers you can show them your passport. So we tried. We spent the whole day there without eating, but we couldn't even get close to the soldiers. There was fire from Kalashnikovs near my children. My son was injured, he got beatings on the head, he had blood all over and I didn't have water to clean him, the blood dried on his face. My other son and I took hits. We are leaving again. For my children who grew up in France, they lived a real nightmare.
"
Mansour and his family are currently staying with a friend in the capital. He recounts the situation in Kabul: “
My friends keep calling and I keep trying to reach them. It is very expensive and since the banks are closed, I cannot withdraw money. Banks and department stores have been closed for a week. Food prices have risen a lot, there is no longer any way to buy medicine. Every two kilometers there are checks for cars. So we don't go out, especially not my wife. She cannot take off her makeup and should wear a burqa. And if I go out, don't take my passport. The streets are quiet, the schools are also closed.
"
►
To read also: France: demonstration in Paris for the repatriation of Afghans threatened by the Taliban
"Mathematically impossible"
Time is running out to complete the evacuations, as Kabul airport is supposed to close on August 31, the date of the final withdrawal of American troops.
For Brussels as for London, there is no doubt: not everyone can be evacuated by then.
“
The Americans want to get 60,000 people out by the end of the month.
It is mathematically impossible
”, judged the head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell.
Since Aug. 14, around 25,100 people have been evacuated from Afghanistan aboard military planes from the United States and allied countries, according to the White House.
Washington requisitioned planes from several private airlines to help evacuate people fleeing Afghanistan, the US Defense Department said on Sunday.
►
See also: Evacuations from Afghanistan: Washington mobilizes the civilian plane, G7 meeting on Tuesday
Thousands of people have already been exfiltrated on board devices urgently dispatched by Western countries.
The goal: to evacuate their nationals, their diplomatic staff and the Afghan citizens who worked with them and their relatives.
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Afghanistan
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