Evacuations continue from Kabul airport, but Joe Biden has refused to delay the US withdrawal and the Taliban say Afghans will not be allowed to leave after August 31.
More than 10,000 people are waiting at Kabul's airport to be evacuated, the US defence department said at a press conference on Wednesday, as Afghanistan evacuations continue with many people desperately trying to flee the country.
Europe and the rest of the world are scrambling to complete evacuations ahead of the US withdrawal deadline of next Tuesday, August 31.
Since the effort began on August 14, roughly 88,000 people have already departed, including 19,000 people in the last 24 hours, the Pentagon said.
G7 and European leaders have pledged to help the country and its people following the Taliban's takeover, but without a Western military presence, the challenge is immense.
See below for the latest details.
The Taliban has reiterated that the evacuations and troop withdrawals must end by the US August 31 deadline.
A Taliban spokesman said on Tuesday that after that date, Afghans will no longer be allowed to leave the country.
The UN's human rights chief has said she has "credible reports" of serious abuses by the Islamist militants, including summary executions, the recruitment of child soldiers, and restrictions imposed on women and girls.
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Latest updates on Afghanistan
- French citizen recounts harrowing Kabul evacuation
- More than 10,000 people are awaiting evacuation at Kabul airport, US military says
- Roughly 88,000 people have been evacuated from Kabul so far, Pentagon says
- Belgium and Poland end evacuations due to Afghanistan security situation
- Angela Merkel says the international community should continue to 'dialogue with the Taliban'
- UNICEF Afghanistan: 10m children in desperate need
French citizen recounts harrowing Kabul evacuation
A French citizen who was evacuated from Afghanistan recounted her "frantic" trip to the Kabul airport, stating that money had to be paid to the Taliban in order for her group of foreigners to get to the airport.
Victoria Fontan, a professor of peace and conflict studies at the American University of Afghanistan, told Euronews that the Taliban put her and others in her group under "house arrest and made it almost impossible for us to actually reach the airport."
"From the beginning till the end, it was quite uncertain if we could actually make it to the airport even as internationals," Fontan said.
Read more here.
Belgium ends evacuations due to Afghanistan security situation
De Croo said that five flights had been operated between Kabul and Islamabad on Wednesday and that the government would continue to repatriate those that had been able to escape Kabul to other countries.
'We are building to a plateau', US European Command head says
He said "we're not hearing any negative comments" from European allies about the evacuations, stating that everyone was working "feverishly" to get people out.
US says 1,500 Americans still waiting to evacuate
Blinken said that at the beginning of the evacuation, there were 6,000 Americans who wanted to leave Afghanistan and about 4,500 have already been evacuated.
21 Germans transported to Kabul airport by US helicopter
Germany’s top military commander said that 21 German citizens were flown overnight to the Kabul airport in a US helicopter, AP reports.
Gen. Eberhard Zorn said that US troops flew the helicopter and German forces picked up the evacuees.
The US Pentagon acknowledged that there was a US military helicopter flight into Kabul overnight to gather evacuees and take them to the airport to be flown out of the country.
NGO workers sound the alarm on humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan
"More than 90% of Afghans currently live on less than two dollars a day. When I arrived in Afghanistan four years ago, this number was roughly 50% of the population," said Vicki Aken, the International Rescue Committee's Country Director in Afghanistan.
Aken spoke with representatives from the Danish Refugee Council and the Norwegian Refugee Council at a virtual briefing about the crisis.
"The devastating impacts of the 2018 drought, COVID and the 2021 drought, along with an escalation in the conflict, caused that number to skyrocket. And now, without a functional government in place with the threat of sanctions and the withdrawal of development funds, the current prognosis is quite dire," Aken added.
Turkey begins withdrawing troops from Afghanistan
European and other nations are scrambling to evacuate people from the country before the US military's August 31 deadline.
Meanwhile the AP reports that Turkey is strengthening its border with Iran amid fears of a migrant crisis as Afghans flee the country.
'Our mission remains unchanged,' US Pentagon major general says on evacuation timeline
"We will continue to put forth our maximum effort to safely evacuate as many people as possible," he said.
More than 10,000 people at Kabul airport awaiting evacuation, US Pentagon says
More than 10,000 people are waiting at the Kabul Airport to be evacuated, US Army Maj. Gen. William “Hank” Taylor, deputy director for regional operations and force management for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in a press conference on the situation in Afghanistan.
"This is a snapshot in time," the major general said, adding that the situation would likely change, as more people arrive at the airport.
He said that the US Pentagon was relying on support from allies to transfer evacuees.
Six flights are set to transfer 1,800 Afghans from Germany to the United States and the US base in Germany is expecting 13 more flights from Kabul.
Merkel: International community should continue 'to dialogue with the Taliban'
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday that the international community should continue "to dialogue with the Taliban" after they took over Afghanistan at a stunning speed this past month.
"Our aim must be to preserve as much as possible the changes we have made over the past 20 years in Afghanistan," Merkel told the Bundestag, even as western countries rushed to evacuate thousands from the country.
"The international community must also dialogue on this with the Taliban," she said, stating that the new reality in Afghanistan was "bitter" but that the global community had to face it.
She insisted that "we must not forget Afghanistan."
Roughly 88,000 people have departed Afghanistan so far, US army major general says
He said overall that since US and coalition forces began the evacuation, "approximately 88,000 have safely departed from Afghanistan."
"Every 39 minutes yesterday, a plane departed Kabul airport," Taylor said.
Four planes en route to Russia with 500 on board
The Russian Defense Ministry says four planes sent to evacuate more than 500 people from Afghanistan have taken off from Kabul and are en route to Russia.
The Defense Ministry said on Wednesday the planes would carry the nationals of Russia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Ukraine from Kabul.
The flights marked the first such airlift for Russia since evacuations from Kabul began.
London gives provisional green light for evacuation of 200 cats and dogs
While thousands of Afghans have desperately tried to flee the country since the Taliban came to power, fearing a return to their repressive methods, the subject has been the subject of debate for several days in the UK.
The day before, the minister said he would not give priority to animals over men, women and children.
French evacuations 'a race against time'
A French government spokesperson says France will continue its evacuation operation in Kabul “as long as possible” ahead of American Aug. 31 withdrawal date.
Gabriel Attal on Wednesday did not provide a date for the end of the French operation, saying only “we will likely need to anticipate a few hours, maybe a few days ahead” of the American forces’ departure from Kabul airport.
“We will continue as long as possible,” he said. “Due to extreme tension on the ground ... and the scheduled departure of American forces, these evacuations are a true race against time.”
Attal declined to elaborate on how many people are still waiting for evacuation by France in Kabul.
A 10th flight carrying evacuees landed in Paris on Wednesday, with 21 French and 220 Afghan nationals, including 130 children onboard, according to the French Office of Immigration and Integration.
In total, at least 1,720 Afghans and a hundred French people have been evacuated by France since the beginning of the operation last week.
French President Emmanuel Macron promised France would evacuate Afghans who worked for the country as well as activists and others under threat.
Bulgaria says granting 70 Afghans asylum
Bulgaria says it will grant asylum to some 70 Afghan citizens and their families.
The country’s caretaker Prime Minister Stefan Yanev told reporters on Wednesday that the Afghan nationals have previously worked at the Bulgarian Embassy in Kabul or within the Bulgarian military missions in Afghanistan.
He did not elaborate about the timing and the route of the evacuation.
“Their evacuation from Afghanistan will be a challenge, but with the arrangements in place I hope that we will be successful," Yanev said.
Bulgaria, a member of the European Union and NATO, has already announced that it is going to shelter Afghans who worked for the Balkan country.
But it is hesitant to invite larger groups of refugees, saying that all temporary accommodation centers are already overcrowded with migrants from Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq.
Bulgaria was used as a transit route for hundreds of thousands of migrants on their way to western Europe during the height of the migrant crisis. Since then, Bulgaria erected a razor-wire fence along most of its 269-kilometer (167-mile) border with Turkey and has pledged to deploy hundreds of army troops to support border police.
Over 300 more Afghan evacuees arrive in Paris
An Airbus A330 landed around 3:00 am at Roissy with "more than 240 people on board, mostly Afghans, as well as 22 French nationals and one Briton", Colonel Pascal Ianni told AFP.
An A400M then landed at 8:40 am with "a hundred people, again an overwhelming majority of Afghans, and five French," he said.
Two other flights are scheduled for Wednesday evening and early Thursday morning.
These are the 10th and 11th flights since the French airlift was set up between Kabul and Paris, via the Al-Dhafra base in the United Arab Emirates.
France has brought out more than 2,000 people since the fall of Kabul at the hands of the Taliban on August 15. They include French nationals, other nationalities and Afghans considered under threat.
Unlike other NATO countries, France has not had a military presence in Afghanistan since 2014 and so has already brought back 800 personnel who worked for the French army, plus their families, between 2014 and 2019.
Anticipating the departure of the United States from the country, France evacuated 623 people -- those who worked for the embassy and other French institutions, plus their families -- between May and July 2021.
Poland halts evacuations over safety concerns
Poland has halted its airlift evacuations from Kabul's international airport over safety concerns.
Marcin Przydacz, a Polish deputy foreign minister, said that a group taken from Kabul and now in Uzbekistan was the last evacuated by Poland.
Another plane is on its way to Warsaw.
He said his nation made its decision after consulting with the US. and British officials.
“After a long analysis of reports on the security situation we cannot risk the lives of our diplomats and of our soldiers any longer," Przydacz said.
Hotel in Strasbourg requisitioned to host refugees
One hundred and fifty Afghan refugees will be welcomed to Strasbourg on Thursday, the prefect of Bas-Rhin announced on Wednesday.
"It has been agreed that we will welcome 150 Afghans to Strasbourg from tomorrow," Josiane Chevalier told a press conference.
She added that they would be staying for several weeks, and that a hotel in the city had been requisitioned for a month to house the refugees.
UNICEF Afghanistan: 10m children in desperate need
Ten million children in Afghanistan are in desperate need of humanitarian assistance since the Taliban swept to power this month, a UNICEF Afghanistan spokesperson said Wednesday.
The organisation said it expects the humanitarian situation in the country to worsen due to a severe drought, the onset of winter and the coronavirus pandemic.
"Afghanistan is a country in crisis, and those who are least responsible for it are paying the highest price," Sam Mort, UNICEF Afghanistan Chief of Communication, said during an interview with Sky News.
"Many of these children have seen atrocities that no child should ever see," she added.
Children in Afghanistan already survive on humanitarian assistance and around a million are expected to suffer from life-threatening malnutrition this year, according to UNICEF.
It says some 4.2 million children, including 2.2 million girls, are out of school.
Afghanistan was a poor country, reliant on international aid, even before the Taliban took over earlier this month.
While UNICEF was able to provide water and other assistance to some of the internally displaced population, a recent drought in the country meant food production could run out in the coming months, Sam Mort warned.
51 evacuees from Afghanistan arrive in Uganda at US request
Uganda's government said that 51 people evacuated from Afghanistan arrived Wednesday in the East African country at the request of the United States.
Authorities said in a statement that the group, transported to Uganda on a chartered flight, arrived early Wednesday. The statement said they included men, women and children. No further details were immediately given on the evacuees' identities.
Ugandan officials said last week that the country would shelter up to 2,000 people fleeing the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan. They said the Afghans would be brought to Uganda in small groups in a temporary arrangement before they are relocated elsewhere.
Lithuania evacuates 50 interpreters from Kabul
A plane carrying the first group of Afghan interpreters who had worked with Lithuanian forces in Afghanistan has touched down in the Baltic country.
The Defence Ministry said on Wednesday that a total of 50 people were flown from Kabul via the Polish capital Warsaw.
They are the first of 115 interpreters who worked with Lithuanian forces in Afghanistan from 2005 to 2013, and Lithuania plans to bring all of them out of the country. The second group is expected to land in Vilnius later in the day.
Meanwhile in Norway, two planes from Afghanistan with a total of 278 passengers landed in Oslo, Norwegian news agency NTB reported.
And two planes carrying evacuees from Afghanistan landed in Belgium on Wednesday. The planes touched down in Melsbroek, and families wearing masks stepped off the plane and were transferred to buses.
'Almost all' Britons out of Afghanistan -- foreign minister
British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said on Wednesday "almost all" British nationals who want to leave Afghanistan had returned to the UK.
The UK along with many countries across the globe have been undertaking huge evacuation operations in Kabul after the Taliban took control of the city earlier this month.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson says 10,291 people have been evacuated since 13 August, more than 5,500 of them Afghans and their families.
https://twitter.com/BorisJohnson/status/1430436600039759874
Afghan paralympic athletes safely evacuated
IPC spokesman Craig Spence told a press conference that the pair were now in a "safe place".
According to Australian media ABC, they are part of a group of around 50 Afghan athletes who may have been brought out by Australia, but this has not been officially confirmed by the country's authorities.
Russia preparing evacuation of 500 from Kabul
Russia is preparing to evacuate more than 500 people on four military planes from Afghanistan — its first airlift operation since evacuations from Kabul began.
The Defense Ministry said Wednesday that it will airlift the nationals of Russia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Ukraine from Kabul.
Teams of medical workers will be present on each plane, the ministry said, should any of the evacuees require medical attention.
The evacuations will be carried out upon orders of Russian President Vladimir Putin, the ministry noted.