The United States has evacuated about 3,000 more people from Afghanistan’s Kabul airport, according to a White House official, bringing the US evacuations tally to about 9,000 since August 14.
Shabia Mantoo, spokesperson of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), has welcomed the evacuation of Afghan nationals through such separate bilateral programmes, but stressed that they should not substitute for an “urgent and wider international humanitarian response”.
“The vast majority of Afghans are not able to leave the country through regular channels,” she told a Geneva news briefing. “As of today, those who may be in danger have no clear way out.”
She reiterated the call to neighbouring countries to keep their borders open to allow people to seek asylum in light of what she called the “evolving crisis”.
A United Nations threat assessment report says Taliban fighters are conducting “targeted door-to-door visits” of people who worked with the US and NATO forces, increasing the fear of revenge.
Here are the latest updates:
Taliban said to be waiting until after August 31
An Afghan official familiar with talks with the Taliban has told The Associated Press News agency that the group does not plan to make any decisions or announcements about the upcoming government until after the August 31 US withdrawal date passes.
The official, who is not authorised to give information to the media and thus spoke anonymously, says Taliban lead negotiator Anas Haqqani has told his ex-government interlocuters that the group has a deal with the US “to do nothing” until after the final withdrawal date passes.
He did not elaborate on whether the reference to doing nothing was only in the political field.
Vatican newspaper calls on global community to welcome Afghans
The Vatican’s newspaper is calling on the international community to welcome Afghan civilians fleeing the Taliban, expressing incredulousness “that before deciding to abandon the country no one thought through such a foreseeable scenario or did anything to avoid it”.
In a front-page article in the Friday edition of L’Osservatore Romano, deputy editor Gaetano Vallini said the West was obliged to urgently remedy the situation with concrete action and welcome refugees to avoid a “catastrophic humanitarian emergency”.
The commentary was an unusually blunt criticism of the US, though Washington wasn’t singled out by name. After expressing shock at the chaos created by the US-led Western withdrawal, Gallini wrote: “It would be even more serious if such a decision was taken with the knowledge of such dramatic consequences.”
Afghan collaborators with the Spanish mission in Afghanistan and their families arrive in Dubai prior to flying to Spain [Spanish Ministry of Defence/AFP]
No incidents reported during Friday prayers in Kabul
Friday prayers were uneventful in the Afghan capital, with no Taliban gunmen seen guarding the entrances of mosques or enforcing dress code restrictions as they have in the past. Some mosques even saw higher numbers than normal in attendance.
“People were as normal, as in the past, but there were more of them,” Kabul resident Jawed Safi said, adding that there were “no restrictions so far”.
An imam in eastern Kabul, Bashir Wardak, said that Afghans should unite to stop the decades-long bloodshed. “Allah has ordered us to peace and brotherhood so we must get united,” he said.
Abdul Boghdi, another imam in northern Kabul, said that “people together should collect money to help those displaced”.
One attendee, Qasim Ahmadi, saw people wearing jeans attend prayers as usual. “There should be no restrictions on us, we are already Muslims,” he said. “The Taliban should aim for an inclusive government in order to be successful.”
Afghan people sit inside a US military aircraft to leave Afghanistan [Shakib Rahmani/AFP]
German civilian wounded by gunshot on way to Kabul airport
A German civilian was shot on his was to Kabul airport but is not in a life-threatening condition and will soon be flown out of Afghanistan, a German government spokeswoman says.
“A German civilian suffered a gunshot wound on his way to Kabul airport. He is receiving medical attention, but his life is not in danger and he will be flown out soon,” the spokeswoman told a regular government news conference in Berlin.
Meanwhile, a defence ministry’s spokesperson in Berlin said Germany would send two light helicopters to Kabul to evacuate Germans at risk or situated in remote regions.
As Taliban returns, Afghan influencers go dark on social media
Sadiqa Madadgar’s social media looked much like any other successful young Afghan influencer’s until the Taliban stormed into Kabul and upended her dreams.
The return of the group has sent a shockwave through Afghanistan’s social media. Prominent influencers have gone dark or fled, while residents and activists are scrambling to scrub their digital lives.
An Afghan woman browses Facebook at the Young Women For Change internet cafe, Afghanistan’s first women-only net cafe, in Kabul [File: Shah Marai/AFP]
UN refugee agency: Afghans at risk ‘have no clear way out’
The United Nations refugee agency UNHCR says that most Afghans are unable to leave their homeland and that those who may be in danger “have no clear way out”.
Spokesperson Shabia Mantoo reiterated its call to neighbouring countries to keep their borders open in light to allow people to seek asylum in light of what she called the “evolving crisis”.
“UNHCR remains concerned about the risk of human rights violations against civilians in this evolving context, including women and girls,” she told a Geneva news briefing.
Germany provides funds for Afghan aid groups
Germany’s foreign ministry is providing 100 million euros ($116m) in emergency aid for Afghan refugees, that is to support international aid organisations helping Afghan refugees in neighbouring countries, a minister says.
Finance Minister Olaf Scholz announced the assistance, and told DPA news agency it was “a first step that shows we feel responsible and care”. Further aid is expected to follow.
A young Afghan refugee at the Iran-Afghanistan border between Afghanistan and the southeastern Iranian Sistan and Baluchestan province [Mohammad Javadzadeh/Iranian Red Crescent/AFP]
Pakistan state carrier resumes flights to Kabul
Pakistan’s state-run airline has resumed special flights for Kabul, in order to evacuate Pakistanis and foreigners stranded in Afghanistan.
Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry in a tweet said Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) will send its two planes to the Afghan capital on Friday to evacuate 350 passengers.
Chaudhry says Pakistan’s interior ministry is also facilitating the evacuation of Pakistanis and foreigners from Afghanistan through border crossings.
Spain’s hub for EU’s Afghan allies will have capacity for 1,000 people
The Spain-based hub to receive Afghan refugees who have worked with European Union institutions will have capacity for 1,000 people, Spain’s foreign minister says.
Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares told Spain’s state broadcaster RTVE the hub would be the entry door to the EU for such refugees and their families.
People received at the hub – which includes a COVID-19 testing area – will then be sent on to different EU countries, immigration minister Jose Luis Escriva said earlier.
Taliban making ‘door-to-door visits’: UN document
The Taliban is going house-to-house searching for opponents and their families, according to a United Nations threat assessment report, deepening fears that Afghanistan’s new rulers are planning revenge.
Taliban fighters patrol in Kabul [Rahmat Gul/AP]
Relative of Deutsche Welle reporter was killed by Taliban
Taliban fighters hunting a journalist with Deutsche Welle have shot dead one member of his family and severely injured another, the German public broadcaster says.
Deutsche Welle (DW) said the Taliban had been doing a house-to-house search to find the journalist who was now working in Germany. Other relatives were able to flee and are on the run now, according to the broadcaster.
“The killing of a close relative of one of our editors by the Taliban … is inconceivably tragic, and testifies to the acute danger in which all our employees and their families in Afghanistan find themselves,” DW Director General Peter Limbourg said, calling on the government in Berlin to take action.
Taliban to allow men’s cricket, no clarity on women’s programmes
The Taliban says it will not interfere with the Afghan men’s national cricket team, the country’s biggest sporting success of recent years, or stop the expansion of the flagship Twenty20 league, an Afghan cricket official says.
The fate of much more modest women’s cricket programmes, however, remains unclear.
“The Taliban don’t have any issue or problem with cricket, and they have told us that we can continue our work as planned,” said Afghanistan Cricket Board head of media operations Hikmat Hassan, adding that the team was ready for three one day matches against Pakistan next month.
An Afghan family at the Pakistan-Afghanistan border crossing point in Chaman [Stringer/AFP]
‘Messy’ picture of reprisals in Afghanistan’s provinces
Al Jazeera’s Rob McBride, reporting from Kabul, said the UN report on the Taliban targeting people who worked with the US and NATO forces contradicted the group’s assurances.
“The Taliban has been saying they have no interest in recriminations, reprisals,” he said. “But we do know that in the provinces, at local levels, there have been cases of people being targeted. There have been reprisals. People have been killed.”
“The question is how much is this the work of the Taliban even at a local level or how much is just a reprisal between individuals, between families or ethnic groups. It gets very messy and very confusing as you get out into the provinces of Afghanistan.”
Taliban behind brutal massacre of Hazara men: Amnesty
Taliban fighters massacred nine ethnic Hazara men after taking control of Afghanistan’s Ghazni province last month, Amnesty International, a global rights watchdog, says in a new report.
It cited witnesses of the killings, which took place between July 4-6 in the village of Mundarakht, Malistan district.
“Six of the men were shot and three were tortured to death, including one man who was strangled with his own scarf and had his arm muscles sliced off,” Amnesty said, urging the UN Security Council to adopt an emergency resolution demanding that the Taliban respect international human rights law.
Taliban revenge fears grow in Afghanistan
The Taliban has been conducting “targeted door-to-door visits” of people who worked with US and NATO forces, according to a confidential document by the UN’s threat assessment consultants seen by the AFP news agency.
The report, written by the Norwegian Center for Global Analyses, said Taliban fighters were also screening people on the way to Kabul airport.
“They are targeting the families of those who refuse to give themselves up, and prosecuting and punishing their families ‘according to Sharia law’,” Christian Nellemann, the group’s executive director, told AFP.
“We expect both individuals previously working with NATO/US forces and their allies, alongside with their family members to be exposed to torture and executions.”
US evacuates about 3,000 more people
The US evacuated about 3,000 people from Afghanistan’s Kabul airport on Thursday, a White House official says.
“The United States evacuated approximately 3,000 people from Hamid Karzai International Airport on 16 C-17 flights,” the official said in a media pool report on Friday, adding that nearly 350 were US citizens.
“Additional evacuees include family members of US citizens, Special Immigrant Visa applicants and their families, and vulnerable Afghans,” the official said, for a tally of about 9,000 evacuated by the military since August 14.
Taliban allowed to enter mosques with civilians
Taliban cadres are allowed to enter mosques with Afghan civilians for weekly Friday prayers, a Taliban official told Reuters news agency.
The official also said several countries and organisations have reached out to Taliban leaders for help in evacuating their nationals or employees from Kabul.
Taliban fighters stand guard along a road in Herat city [Aref Karimi/AFP]
NATO: 18,000 people evacuated since Taliban takeover
More than 18,000 people have been evacuated from Kabul airport since the Taliban took over the Afghanistan capital, a NATO official told Reuters news agency.
However, crowds continued to throng outside the airport, desperate to flee, said the official, who declined to be identified.
Indonesian air force evacuates citizens from Afghanistan
The air force of Indonesia has evacuated 26 of its citizens from Afghanistan, its foreign minister says.
Indonesia picked up 33 people in total on a plane that headed home via Pakistan, Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said on Twitter.
“The plane is now in Islamabad to continue on to Indonesia,” she said, adding there were 26 Indonesians on board, including embassy staff, plus five Filipinos and two Afghan nationals.
