News agency Reuters has reported that an Afgan citizen has reported that “At Kabul airport, one bottle of water is selling for $40 and a plate of rice for $100, not Afghan currency but dollars, that’s out of the reach for the common people,” For the scores of people thronging the gates of Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul the exorbitant cost of essential items, such as water and rice, has made life increasingly difficult.
An official report stated that in Kabul airport thousands of US-led foreign troops and huge crowds of Afghans desperate to leave the country after the Taliban took over on August 15 have gathered, is under threat from Islamic State militants, US warned Afghan citizens on August 25. The US, Britain, and Australia have urged people to leave the area for safer locations. Western troops are currently trying to evacuate as many people as possible before the official date of US withdrawal looms closer. Armed Taliban fighters are guarding the periphery as expectant crowds wait to be evacuated.
A Western diplomat informed news agency Reuters that despite security warnings the area around the airport is “incredibly crowded” and an estimated 1,500 US passport or visa holders were still trying to enter the airport. Reuters quoted an Afganman saying “I learned from an email sent from London that the Americans are taking people out of here that is why I have come here so that I can go abroad,”
“The situation at the airport is really bad, people are crowding and because of the rush of people, women and children are in terrible condition,” he added.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken echoed President Joe Biden’s sentiments on Thursday and told reporters that the US is prioritising evacuation of Americans out of Kabul, but they are committed to “getting out as many Afghans at-risk as we can before the 31st”.
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