Jubilee Post News & Views
Special Desk
As Taliban continues its brutal way to capture Afgan provinces one after the other residents scamper to safety in makeshift shelters, some without proper food and water supply. Now the UN has urged Afghanistan’s neighbours to keep borders open for civilians fleeing the Taliban onslaught.
On Friday the Taliban captured the provincial capital of Logar province, just 50 km from Kabul, effectively opening a path to the seat of the nation.
In another significant move countries have decided to reduce their embassy staff. Germany announced will reduce its embassy staff in Kabul to the bare minimum. Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on Friday that security will also be increased. Similar reports came from the United States and other Western governments.
Thousands of those internally displaced have been arriving in Kabul, seeing the capital as their last safe refuge. Kabul has though been isolated in the race to win provinces. Food shortages are dire, the World Food Programme (WFP) said. It warned of a humanitarian catastrophe.
Taliban has captured several capital provinces and also seized the country’s second-largest city Kandahar, the latest provincial capital to fall. The southern city of 600,000 people was once the Taliban’s stronghold, and is strategically important because of its international airport, agricultural and industrial output.
The insurgents also took the nearby city of Lashkar Gah, and now control about one third of Afghanistan’s provincial capitals. The advance comes as US and other foreign troops withdraw after 20 years of military operations. Life under the Taliban in the 1990s saw women forced to wear the all-covering burka, education restricted for girls over 10 and brutal punishments brought in, including public executions.
Many of those seeking safety in Kabul have been sleeping on the streets. About 72,000 children are among those fleeing to the capital in recent days, according to Save the Children. Makeshift camps have been established on scrubland on the outskirts of the capital but people have to brave the harsh climate.
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In 2001 US-led forces overthrew Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers after the 9/11 attacks masterminded by al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who was based there. The US and allies forces oversaw elections and built up Afghan security forces, but the Taliban continued to launch attacks. US-led forces withdrew this year and the Taliban have now retaken most of the country. In Kabul, thousands of people have been arriving but this number changes by the hours.
