Afghanistan: a report sheds light on the flight of Ashraf Ghani to escape the Taliban

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani outside parliament in Kabul on October 21, 2020. AFP - WAKIL KOHSAR

Text by: RFI Follow

2 mins

That was the rumor when Kabul fell last year.

Not only the Afghan President, Ashraf Ghani had fled the country to escape the Taliban.

But above all, he had taken great care to empty the state coffers before leaving.

A version denied in the latest report by Sigar, the American entity responsible for monitoring allocations to Afghanistan, which recounts in detail the incredible flight of the head of state, panicked by the arrival of the insurgents in Kabul.

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Some nonsense circulated at the time of the fall of Kabul, in particular, this rumor, propagated by the Russian embassy in Afghanistan.

left with $169 million.

The Sigar report methodically dismantles this fanciful thesis and tells how the Afghan president, his wife and his entourage rushed aboard three helicopters to flee as quickly as possible, that they did not know where to go and that they chose almost at random to reach Uzbekistan.

Under these conditions, would they have had time to pack such a sum of cash?

The Sigar has done its calculations.

It would take a container more than two meters wide and one meter high to transport such a treasure.

The equivalent in volume of a sofa for three people.

However, none of the passengers questioned, none of the people present at the landing saw this kind of equipment pass.

The presidential delegation had at most $500,000 in its possession, largely drawn from the coffers of the Afghan state.

Several mysteries remain to be clarified: where did the five million taken shelter by the presidential guard after the departure of Ashraf Ghani?

And the colossal funds of the Afghan intelligence services?

A secret fund of at least 40 million dollars?

To this day, no one is able to say.

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• Afghanistan

• Ashraf Ghani