FALL OF AFGHANISTAN - STRANDED IN KABUL

AS THE TALIBAN SEIZES CONTROL OF THE NATION, THOUSANDS MAKE A DESPERATE BID TO ESCAPE – INCLUDING 130 AUSTRALIANS

- Michael Crooks

As her Afghan village became a battleground between the Taliban and government forces last month, Fatima, a 22-year-old who is seven months’ pregnant, desperately sought refuge in her home. As bullets pelted the walls, Fatima not only feared for her life and the life of her unborn child, she was terrified of a darker fate.

“We had heard of cases where the Taliban would kill young men and sexually abuse girls and young women of the family,” Fatima told Afghanistan’s Rukhshana Media. “When they finally came to our village, they wanted to take a young girl with them, but she jumped from the roof of her house and ended her life.”

On August 15, that military organisation brought its dreaded brand of terror to Kabul, seizing control of the capital amid the US withdrawal of troops from the war-torn land. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani had fled the country earlier that Sunday, and within hours gun-toting insurgents were parading around his offices.

By the next day, Kabul’s airport was a scene of chaos and human tragedy as Afghans desperately tried to board planes in a bid to escape the Taliban’s repressive rule. US soldiers fired warning shots over the crowd while people clung to the outside of a US Air Force transport aircraft. Several people plunged to their deaths as it took off. “The world is following events in Afghanistan with a heavy heart and deep disquiet about what lies ahead,” said UN Secretary-General António Guterres.