VATICAN (Agencies): Hours before the Taliban took control of Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, Pope Francis expressed his hope for the peace and safety of the country’s citizens CNS reported.
“I join in the unanimous concern for the situation in Afghanistan. I ask all of you to pray with me to the God of peace, so that the clamor of weapons might cease and solutions can be found at the table of dialogue,” the pope said on August 15 during his Angelus address.
Only through dialogue, he added, “can the battered population of that country—men, women, elderly and children—return to their own homes, and live in peace and security, in total mutual respect.”
Meanwhile, two Jesuits found themselves stranded in Afghanistan, Matters India reported on August 17. “Thank you for your continuous prayers for our safety. The way [the] situation is changing in the country, it is anyone’s imagination … safety does not make sense here. It is a chaotic situation,” Father Jerome Sequeira, the head of Jesuit Refugee Service in Afghanistan, wrote in a letter to friends and colleagues.
“[The airport] resembled a chaotic railway station,” Father Sequeira said on the evening of August 16 from “a secure place” in the city.
“I came to this country in 2006. I have never such a breakdown of systems in the past 15 years,” he added.
The other Jesuit, Father Robert Rodrigues from Karnataka, India, was stuck in Bamiyan in central Afghanistan.
“We seeking possible ways to evacuate him from Bamiyan to Kabul through the help of UN agencies,” Father Sequeira said.
He said the Jesuit Refugee Service had indefinitely suspended its activities in Afghanistan, Matters India reported.
“With the way the Taliban took over provinces, all thought it would take some 90 days for them to reach Kabul. But they swept over the capital in ten days,” Father Sequeira said.
‘As the world is following events in Afghanistan with a heavy heart, I urge all countries to be willing to receive Afghan refugees & refrain from deportations. Afghans have known generations of war & hardship. They deserve our full support. Now is the time for solidarity’
United Nations secretary general, António Guterres
In the early hours of August 17, United Nations secretary general, António Guterres tweeted: “As the world is following events in Afghanistan with a heavy heart, I urge all countries to be willing to receive Afghan refugees & refrain from deportations. Afghans have known generations of war & hardship. They deserve our full support. Now is the time for solidarity.”
The Taliban swiftly took over large swaths of the country as United States and NATO forces withdrew in accordance with a deal struck by the previous administration of Donald Trump in February 2020.
According to the Associated Press, Taliban fighters entered the presidential palace after erstwhile Afghan president, Ashraf Ghani, fled the country.
The International Committee of the Red Cross was reported as saying thousands had been wounded in the fighting and that security forces and politicians handed over their provinces and bases without a fight.
US president, Joe Biden, admitted on August 16, that the collapse of the Afghan government and the Taliban retaking control happened faster than had been anticipated, CNN reported.
However he refused to walk back his decision to end the American military’s combat mission in Afghanistan, asserting, “I stand squarely behind my decision. After 20 years, I’ve learned the hard way that there was never a good time to withdraw US forces.”
Biden also acknowledged the “gut-wrenching” scenes in Afghanistan, saying, “for those who have lost loved ones … who have fought and served in the country, served our country in Afghanistan, this is deeply, deeply personal.”
Meanwhile, AsiaNews reported that Taliban leader, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, issued a video message from the presidential palace in Kabul. He thanked militiamen and promised “magnanimity” while at the same time, recalling eight years of what he called “captivity.”
Baradar said, “It is an unexpected victory” in terms of speed and ease and must now be followed by “humility before Allah, [because this] is the moment of trial, it is about how we serve and protect our people. And how we ensure their future and the life” of the citizens of Afghanistan, now renamed ‘Islamic Emirate’.”
A White House statement cited by the BBC on August 17 said that Biden had sanctioned the use of an emergency refugee fund “for the purpose of meeting unexpected urgent refugee and migration needs of refugees, victims of conflict and other persons at risk as a result of the situation in Afghanistan.”
The statement added that the money could be used through international organisations and charities as well as government departments and agencies.
