Penultimate Sunday, 15 August, 2021, the global media was awash with the news of the abrupt seizure of Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, by Taliban militants. The insurgents surprisingly quashed the resistant Afghan security forces trained and well equipped by the West, and retook control of the country almost 20 years after the Taliban government was toppled by the United States and replaced with the Afghanistan’s civilian government.
The usurp is most shocking in its barbarity, not just because the country will now be ruled by a terrorist government or the world now officially have a country govern by terrorists, but also for the fact that millions of Afghans who are barely coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic will now be plagued by this “man-made-plague”. Definitely, it will also give rise to another global issue; refugees burden.
All these at a time when the world is struggling out of the craziest pandemic in human history, is almost too much for our COVID-19 fagged out World to bear.
Clearly, the world didn’t anticipated the Taliban coup, at least not this soon. In fact, US intelligence analysts had predicted it would likely take several more weeks before Afghanistan’s civilian government in Kabul fell to Taliban fighters.” But surprisingly, the Taliban retook power in Afghanistan – two weeks before the U.S was set to complete its troop withdrawal after a costly two-decade war – in a manner that “stunned the world”. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, on Sunday (15 August, 2021) fled the country, abandoning the presidential palace to Taliban militants.
In yesterday’s Afghanistan’s history, when the Taliban – a Sunni Islamist terrorist organization formed in 1994 – seized power in 1996, we saw how draconian rules were imposed on Afghans. Women had to wear head-to-toe coverings, weren’t allowed to study or work and were forbidden from traveling alone. TV, music and non-Islamic holidays were also banned. They melted brutal public punishments on “defaulters”; floggings, amputations and mass executions.
That only changed in 2001, after the US and allied forces invaded Afghanistan and toppled the Taliban government for providing a safe-haven to al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden – the mastermind of the September 11, 2001 bombings across the US which claimed over 2,700 lives.
The Taliban have since then been carrying out guerrilla attacks against the allied forces and the US-backed Afghan government. In 2012, a young female education activist, Malala Yousafzai, was shot on her way back from school by a Tehrik-i Taliban Pakistan gunman in an assassination attempt in retaliation for her activism. Her story won worldwide sympathy and her activism gained global acclaim.
Now that the Taliban have retaken power, the unthinkable looms for Afghans and the world at large.
REFUGEES BURDEN
Already, the US and the UK have began evacuation of their citizens and “eligible Afghans” from Afghanistan as escapism from the hellacious regime the country is about to witness.
According to a statement credited to British armed forces minister, James Heappey, “more than 1,700 people airlifted” already.
A media report had it that the US President, Joe Biden said troops may stay past its planned August 31 deadline to help with evacuations.
With UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson quoted saying; “It’s vital that the international community works together to ensure safe evacuations, prevent a humanitarian crisis and support the Afghan people to secure the gains of the last 20 years”.
Meanwhile, Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has dismissed claims by the opposition that Turkey is hosting 1.5 million Afghan refugees.
“Turkey does not have any obligation whatsoever to be a safe haven for Afghan refugees,” the president was quoted as saying.
He added; “It is our obligation to Turkish citizens to ensure the refugees’ safe return to their home countries.”
No fewer than seven Afghan civilians had died in the chaotic crowds outside Kabul airport on Saturday, according to the UK government.
TALIBAN’S “VICTORY” AND US’ EXIT
According to former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who sent British troops into Afghanistan 20 years ago, the US withdrawal is “tragic, dangerous, and unnecessary”.
Taking to his website, the former UK leader wrote; “The exit of allied troops would have every Jihadist group around the world cheering.”
Already, experts have expressed worries that the victory of the Taliban will encourage other Islamic Jihadist movements fighting for Islamic states across the Middle East and Africa.
Experts also argued that this has put the credibility of America and allied forces to question.
“It undermined, at a stroke, the good work that had been built up over the last 15 years, which was having a positive effect on Afghan civil society,” former head of the British Army, Lord Dannatt said about the US withdrawal.
According to him; “It now is a challenge, how we can restore our credibility in the future.”
(Sunny Green Itodo
A Public Affairs Analyst and Media Consultant can be reached on greenbox247online@gmail.com)
