A first international passenger flight left Kabul on Thursday, since the chaotic American withdrawal at the end of August from Afghanistan. The Qatar Airways flight to Doha came as the Taliban’s new power organizes itself, less than a month after its fighters marched victoriously on Kabul after the collapse of the pro-Western government in mid August. It is the first flight of this type since the gigantic airlift organized by the Americans, which allowed the evacuation of more than 123,000 people.
Nearly 40 US citizens had been invited but only 21 boarded, said Ned Price, spokesperson for the State Department. “Of course we would like to see more flights of this nature,” he said. On board were also 43 Canadians and 13 Dutch. Doha is very involved in this operation as in the relaunch of the Kabul airport, which closed after the American withdrawal and is slow to reopen to regular flights. Qatar and its ally Turkey have been working for several days to prepare Kabul airport structures for a gradual reopening. A complicated task, as the airport suffered from the chaotic evacuations at the end of August.
Many people still to exfiltrate
Washington recognizes that there are still many Afghans who are threatened by working with the former government or Western countries to be exfiltrated. The Taliban “have been flexible and have been professional in our dealings with them in this effort. It’s a first positive step, ”greeted the White House Thursday. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres went so far as to plead Thursday for the international community to maintain “a dialogue” with the Taliban in Afghanistan, where an “economic collapse” with “millions of deaths” must be avoided. .
The UN envoy to Afghanistan, Deborah Lyons, told the Security Council Thursday that the Taliban had carried out assassinations since their return to power, despite their promise of amnesty. “There are credible allegations of retaliatory killings of members of the security forces and the detention of officials who worked for previous governments,” she said.
Taliban government screwdriver
On Wednesday, the new Taliban government, appointed the day before, tightened the screw to extinguish the protest by issuing an order indicating that any gathering should now be authorized in advance by the justice ministry and that none should. was for the hour. The threat seems to have borne: several demonstrations were canceled Thursday in Kabul after the government’s announcement. On Thursday, more armed Taliban were seen in the streets of Kabul than in previous days, including members of special forces in fatigues, at street corners and at roadblocks placed on major arteries.
In recent days, several gatherings of hundreds of people in defense of freedoms, and therefore distrust of the Taliban, have been dispersed by armed Taliban fighters, especially in the capital Kabul, in Mazar-i-Sharif (North) , Faizabad (North-East) and Hérat (West), where two people were killed and several wounded by gunshot. On Wednesday evening, two journalists from Etilaat Roz (“Info Day”), one of the main Afghan dailies, showed their bruised bodies, covered with huge purplish bruises after a demonstration in Kabul.