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August 26, 2021

Race against time to escape from Afghanistan: last days for the airlift before the deadline of 31 August, even if the Taliban would have pledged to let the Americans and Afghans at risk leave even after that date. 

The US embassy in Afghanistan warned US citizens not to go to Kabul airport, citing "security threats outside the gates". The same indication came a few hours later from Australia and the United Kingdom who asked their fellow citizens and Afghans not to go to the airport in the capital. "Due to security threats we are advising US citizens to avoid going to the airport. and to avoid the airport gates at this time, unless you receive individual instructions from a US government representative to do so, "the US embassy website reads. "US citizens who are at Abbey Gate, East Gate or North Gate should leave immediately."

A few days before the deadline, anguish is growing for the tens of thousands of Afghans who have been outside the Kabul airport for days in a desperate attempt to leave the country. Despite the Taliban's announced ban on all Afghans from reaching the airport, entire families are camped out. Thousands of Afghans are stopped by the Taliban at checkpoints along the access road. 

, a thousand still to be taken out of the country. US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken provides the numbers of the evacuation, which he himself calls "unprecedented" and ensures the operation will continue beyond August 31st.

In the last 24 hours, the US military has taken out nearly 20,000 displaced people, while London, second in the number of rescues, has reached a total of 10,000 since the beginning of operations.

The people considered most at risk - foreigners excluded - are however calculated at around 300,000 just by counting the former Afghan collaborators of the NATO mission.