US Ends War in Afghanistan as Last US Military Planes Leave Kabul

It’s August 31, the deadline imposed by President Joe Biden for U.S. forces to be out of Afghanistan. At least 122,000 people were evacuated by the U.S. military and coalition forces, 5,400 of them Americans. VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb has the latest.Produced by: Bakhtiyar Zamanov   

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Kabul Airport Now Uncontrolled; US Carriers Barred from Airspace

Kabul airport is without air traffic control services now that the U.S. military has withdrawn from Afghanistan, and U.S. civil aircraft are barred from operating over the country unless given prior authorization, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said on Monday. The FAA said in a statement that “due to both the lack of air traffic services and a functional civil aviation authority in Afghanistan, as well as ongoing security concerns, U.S. civil operators, pilots, and U.S.-registered civil aircraft are prohibited from operating at any altitude over much of Afghanistan.” Earlier this month, the U.S. military said it had assumed air traffic control responsibilities in Kabul to facilitate the evacuation of tens of thousands of people from Afghanistan. The FAA said U.S. civil operators “may continue to use one high-altitude jet route near the far eastern border for overflights. Any U.S. civil aircraft operator that wants to fly into/out of or over Afghanistan must receive prior authorization from the FAA.” On August 18, the FAA said U.S. air carriers and civilian pilots could fly into Kabul to conduct evacuation or relief flights with prior U.S. Defense Department approval. U.S. airlines helped transport thousands of evacuees this month but conducted flights from airports outside Afghanistan. 
 

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The Cost of America’s Longest War: Thousands of Lives, Trillions of Dollars

U.S. military planes have carried the last U.S. service members and diplomats from Kabul’s airport, ending America’s longest war. Ordinary Americans closely watched the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, as they did the start of the war nearly 20 years ago, in the weeks after the 9/11 attacks. But Americans often tended to forget about the Afghanistan war in between, and it received measurably less oversight from Congress than the Vietnam War did. But its death toll for Afghans and Americans and their NATO allies is in the many tens of thousands. And because the U.S. borrowed most of the money to pay for it, generations of Americans to come will be paying off its cost, in the trillions of dollars. A look at the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan, by the numbers, as the last Americans deployed there departed. Much of the data below is from Linda Bilmes of Harvard University’s Kennedy School and from the Brown University Costs of War project. Because the United States between 2003 and 2011 fought the Afghanistan and Iraq wars simultaneously, and many American troops served tours in both wars, some figures as noted cover both post-9/11 U.S. wars. The longest war: Percentage of U.S. population born since the 2001 attacks plotted by al-Qaida leaders sheltering in Afghanistan: roughly 25. The human cost: American service members killed in Afghanistan: 2,461. U.S. contractors, through April: 3,846. Afghan national military and police, through April: 66,000. Other allied service members, including from other NATO member states, through April: 1,144. Afghan civilians, through April: 47,245. Taliban and other opposition fighters, through April: 51,191. Aid workers, through April: 444. Journalists, through April: 72. Afghanistan after nearly 20 years of U.S. occupation:Percentage drop in infant mortality rate since U.S., Afghan and other allied forces overthrew the Taliban government, which had sought to restrict women and girls to the home: about 50. Percentage of Afghan teenage girls able to read today: 37. Percentage of Afghans with access to electricity in 2005: 22. In 2019: 98. Days before the U.S. withdrawal that the Taliban retook control: 15. Oversight by Congress: Date Congress authorized U.S. forces to go after culprits in September 11, 2001, attacks: September 18, 2001. Number of times U.S. lawmakers have voted to declare war in Afghanistan: 0. Number of times lawmakers on Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee addressed costs of Vietnam War during that conflict: 42. Number of times lawmakers in same subcommittee have mentioned costs of Afghanistan and Iraq wars through midsummer 2021: 5. Number of times lawmakers on Senate Finance Committee have mentioned costs of Afghanistan and Iraq wars from September 11, 2001, through midsummer 2021: 1. Paying for war on credit, not in cash: Amount President Harry Truman temporarily raised top tax rates to pay for the Korean War: 92%. Amount President Lyndon Johnson temporarily raised top tax rates to pay for the Vietnam War: 77%. Amount President George W. Bush cut tax rates for the wealthiest, rather than raise them, at outset of Afghanistan and Iraq wars: at least 8%. Estimated amount of direct Afghanistan and Iraq war costs that the United States has financed through debt as of 2020: $2 trillion. Estimated interest costs by 2050: up to $6.5 trillion. The wars end; the costs don’t: Amount Bilmes estimates the United States will pay in health care, disability, burial and other costs for roughly 4 million Afghanistan and Iraq veterans: more than $2 trillion. Period those costs will peak: after 2048. 
 

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Afghan Refugee Misses Home, Pessimistic About its Future

Najia Hashimzada worked with various U.S agencies in Afghanistan for women rights before applying for a Special Immigrant Visa. She says she left Afghanistan because she was on the Taliban’s hit list. She spoke with VOA’s Saqib Ul Islam about the situation in Afghanistan, the SIV process, her life in America and her expectations from the Taliban.   Camera:  Saqib Ul Islam    Produced by: Saqib Ul Islam 

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Ukraine’s Zelenskiy Heads to Long-Awaited White House Visit

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is scheduled to visit the White House on Wednesday, September 1st. VOA’s Ostap Yarysh reports on the long-awaited meeting from Washington.Camera: Kostiantyn Golubchyk, Contributor: Myroslava Gongadze

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US Says Its Military Presence in Afghanistan is Over

The United States’ two-decadeslong presence in Afghanistan is over. The last planes left the Kabul airport at 3:29 p.m. EST, one minute before midnight in Kabul, said Gen. Frank McKenzie, head of U.S. Central Command.A senior Taliban official told VOA, “All foreign occupation forces withdrew from the country moments ago.” Word of the final U.S. flights came even as the White House and the Pentagon promised they would continue to help evacuate Americans and vulnerable Afghans from Kabul up until “the very end,” describing the evacuation as the largest airlift in U.S. military history.  “We continue to have the capability to evacuate and fly out those until the very end,” Army Major General William “Hank” Taylor, deputy director for regional operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters.    A paratrooper conducts security at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug. 28, 2021, in this image provided by the U.S. Army.The White House and the Pentagon said that as of early Monday, a total of 116,700 people have been evacuated following the Taliban’s takeover earlier in August of Afghanistan, including 1,200 or so people flown out on 26 U.S. military flights and two coalition flights from Sunday into Monday.  White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters Monday that some 6,000 Americans have left Afghanistan during that time but “there are still a small number” who had yet to make it out. “We are continuing to work to evacuate American citizens,” Psaki added. “Our commitment is enduring, and our commitment does not waiver, even as we bring our men and women from the military home.” White House says evacuation of SIVs did not stop after Thursday’s suicide attack on #Kabul airport”We have continued to evacuate Afghan partners & other applicants” per @PressSec— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) August 30, 2021Psaki also denied reports that the U.S. evacuation of Afghan partners, specifically Special Immigrant Visa applicants, stopped following last Thursday’s suicide bombing, claimed by Islamic State’s Khorasan province, which killed at least 169 Afghans and 13 U.S. service members.      “The president has made clear to his commanders that they should stop at nothing to make sure that ISIS pays for the death of those American service members at the Kabul airport,” Psaki said, using another acronym for the group. “They have the authorities necessary.” Still, both the White House and the Pentagon described the conditions on the ground during the final hours of the U.S. military-led evacuation as both fluid and dangerous, highlighted by an overnight rocket attack on the Kabul airport, also claimed by IS-Khorasan. NEW: #ISIS-#Khorasan claiming rocket attack on #HKIA#Kabul airport “The soldiers of the Caliphate targeted Kabul International Airport with 6 Katyusha rockets, landing direct hits” ISIS-K claims in statement, via @siteintelgrouppic.twitter.com/lhJ0t0yYG3— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) August 30, 2021 Defense officials said the attackers fired as many as five rockets at the airport. Three of them missed the airfield entirely, while a fourth landed at the airport without causing any significant damage. A fifth rocket was taken out by U.S. defense systems at the airport, officials said.  “The threat stream is still real, it’s still active and in many cases, it’s still specific,” Pentagon press secretary John Kirby told reporters, adding, “We have to try to be as quick and as nimble as they are.” In the meantime, the U.S. is also coming under increased criticism for some of its security efforts, including a drone strike Sunday in Kabul.  U.S. military officials say the strike killed IS-Khorasan operatives who were loading explosives into a vehicle with the intent of carrying out an attack on the airport, but media reports, including one by The New York Times, said the strike or secondary explosions killed as many as nine civilians, among them children.      Kirby on Monday stood by the initial assessment of an imminent threat but added the military is “not in a position to dispute” accounts that bystanders, including children, were killed.  “No military on the face of the Earth works harder to avoid civilian casualties than the United States military, and nobody wants to see innocent life taken,” he said. “We take it very, very seriously.”  US works to prevent civilian casualties “probably more than almost any country in the world” per @PressSec, asked about drone strike that may have killed 9-10 civilians”There were explosives in this vehicle that could have led to additional damage” per @PressSec— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) August 30, 2021Airlift winds down     As the U.S. deadline neared, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said Monday the Afghan people need governments, humanitarians and ordinary people “to stay with them and stay the course.”   “As people across the world welcome Afghans into their communities and homes, we cannot forget those who have been left behind,” Grandi said in a statement. “We must meet the critical humanitarian needs in Afghanistan and in countries around the region, and our response must be robust and urgent. Standing by the people of Afghanistan means standing by all of them, whether they have sought safety abroad or are picking up the pieces of their lives at home.”   VOA White House correspondent Patsy Widakuswara  and VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb contributed to this report.   
 

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Milan Mayor Says Cladding Melted in Tower Block Blaze, as in London’s Grenfell Tower

The mayor of Italy’s financial capital Milan demanded answers on Monday over why a fire was able to rip through an apartment block and melt its cladding, comparing it to the Grenfell Tower fire in London that killed 71 people four years ago. Firefighters said everyone managed to escape the 18 story building in the south of Milan, which was gutted by the blaze that broke out on Sunday afternoon. Among the residents in the high rise building was rapper Mahmood, winner of the 2019 San Remo music festival with his international hit “Soldi.” Witnesses have said the fire, which started on the 15th floor, quickly surged through the outside cladding of the building. Video of the blaze showed panels melting off the building in liquefied clumps. “The tower was built just over 10 years ago and it is unacceptable that such a modern building should have proved totally vulnerable,” mayor Beppe Sala wrote on Facebook. “What was clear from the start was that the building’s outer shell went up in flames far too quickly, in a manner reminiscent of the Grenfell Tower fire in London a few years ago.” The deaths in Britain’s Grenfell Tower fire were blamed on exterior cladding panels made of flammable material. Owners of flats in similar buildings across Britain have since been forced to remove such panels at a cost estimated to run into billions of dollars, forcing many residents into economic hardship.  

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Kenya Sets Up COVID-19 Vaccination Centers

Kenya is stepping up its COVID-19 vaccination campaign by setting up inoculation centers in public spaces like malls, markets, and bus stops. Authorities hope the extra convenience will lift a vaccination rate that stands at just two percent. Victoria Amunga reports from Nairobi.

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Ukraine, US Leaders May Address Sensitive Issues at Next Meeting

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is scheduled to visit the White House on Wednesday, a trip that has been in the works for two years and delayed one day by events in Afghanistan. During the administration of former President Donald Trump, surrogates for the U.S. president pressed Ukraine to open an investigation into activities involving the son of then-candidate Joe Biden. The incidents led to President Trump’s first impeachment by the House of Representatives, and the political furor sidelined relations with Kyiv. Analysts say there are both challenges and opportunities in the meeting between President Biden and Zelenskiy in Washington.Ukraine Ambassador to the U.S. Oksana Markarova is optimistic about the visit, saying it sends an important message about the U.S.-Ukraine relationship.     “After (German) Chancellor (Angela) Merkel, President Zelenskiy is the second leader the U.S. is inviting to the White House with a visit to discuss some strategic issues,” Markarova told VOA. “So, I believe it shows the level of attention, focus and importance of our bilateral relations for both Ukraine and the United States.”    American experts agree that the Biden-Zelenskiy meeting is a great opportunity to strengthen Ukraine-U.S. relations. Steven Pifer, a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine,  says the outcome of the meeting will depend to a great extent on Zelenskiy.”It seems to me, though, that part of the ability to make this a successful meeting will depend on what President Zelenskiy asks for,” Pifer told VOA. “He should moderate some of his requests because if he asks too much, he may be disappointed. You do not want to ask the question unless you are sure the answer is going to be yes.”    Among the more sensitive subjects are NATO membership and the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline between Russia and Europe, which Ukraine opposes. Experts believe it is important that Zelenskiy remain realistic and balanced when discussing these issues.  “He should not expect any commitment from the United States regarding Ukraine and NATO. He should also not expect any change in the Biden position on Nord Stream 2,” said John Herbst, former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine and the director of the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center. “Zelenskiy has to make clear that he still opposes that decision and would like to see a change without antagonizing the president. So, he can do that, I think, by mentioning it, but not in a confrontational way in their White House meeting.”VOA Interview: Nord Stream 2 ‘Should Never Become Operational,’ Ukraine Energy Company SaysLaunch of Nord Stream 2 increases threat of Russia’s military aggression in Ukraine, Naftogaz official believes Daria Kalenyuk, executive director of the Ukrainian Anti-Corruption Action Center, says Zelenskiy should remain assertive when discussing the Nord Stream 2 issue. She says the White House’s decision to waive sanctions on Nord Stream 2 contradict Biden’s statements on fighting corruption abroad.  “The right thing would be to talk not only about corruption in Ukraine but also about geopolitical corruption and strategic corruption. We can and should ask why Nord Stream 2 is being finished despite it being the symbol of strategic corruption,” Kalenyuk said.Security cooperation is also expected to be discussed. Earlier, the White House decided to support providing additional military aid to Ukraine in case of a possible escalation of its longstanding conflict with Russia in eastern Ukraine. In addition, Biden did signal his intention to provide Ukraine with $60 million more in defense lethal and non-lethal U.S. military equipment.”So, I would think that additional American military assistance would be good,” Pifer said. “First of all, because it would help improve Ukrainians’ defense capabilities. That’s the practical step. But second of all, it would be a way to send a strong message of American support for Ukraine.” Herbst believes Biden should also be interested in supporting Ukraine through strong rhetoric.”He needs to demonstrate in very clear ways that the United States has Ukraine’s back — is supporting Ukraine — as Moscow continues this war. And Biden has even more reasons now to do it, after his administration’s disastrous handling of the pullout from Afghanistan. He needs to show that, in fact, he is a strong international player.”  At the same time, the White House has repeatedly emphasized that it expects Ukraine to deliver tangible results in the country’s fight against corruption. Pifer believes the biggest thing Zelenskiy can bring is a credible, compelling message of Kyiv’s commitment to reform. “And that means a more open and competitive economy,” Pifer says. “It means rule of law, including reforming the judicial sector. It means reducing the outsize political and economic influence of the oligarchs. It means combating corruption.” Markarova is convinced the two presidents will see eye to eye, even on the more complex issues. “We know that both Ukraine and the U.S. are strategic partners and friends. So the two leaders will discuss all the issues on the agenda like partners — sincerely and earnestly. And they will find solutions that are acceptable for both sides,” she said.Ukrainian diplomats say Zelenskiy’s visit to the White House is just a start. They expect the bilateral relationship will further flourish as the two countries work hard on fulfilling their agreements.Myroslava Gongadze contributed to this report.

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EU to Recommend Return of COVID Travel Restrictions on US Tourists

European Union officials say the bloc is expected to recommend its member nations reinstate COVID-19 travel restrictions on travelers from the United States, where new cases and hospitalizations have risen sharply in recent weeks.The officials, who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity as the EU travel policy is still being reviewed, say that as early as this week, the U.S. could be removed from a “safe list” of countries whose residents can travel to the 27-nation bloc without additional restrictions, such as quarantine and testing requirements. The recommendation would come from the European Council, which reviews the EU’s travel list every two weeks. The suggested restrictions, however, would not be binding for member countries, as there is no unified travel policy and member nations are free to set their own regulations.The EU lifted most travel restrictions for U.S. tourists in June, even though the U.S. has remained closed to European travelers.The threshold for being on the EU “safe list’ is an infection rate of no higher 75 new cases per 100,000 residents over the previous 14 days. The latest figures from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show a rate of more than 300 new cases per 100,000 people.Last week, new cases per day averaged more than 150,000, a number reminiscent of the peak months of January and February of this year. COVID-19-related hospitalizations have also risen to around 100,000, a number not seen since early February. COVID-19 is caused by the coronavirus.

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EU Says Afghanistan Shows Need for Rapid-Reaction Force

EU governments must push ahead with a European rapid reaction force to be better prepared for future crises such as in Afghanistan, the EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said.In an interview published on Monday, Borrell told Italian paper Il Corriere della Sera the short-notice deployment of U.S. troops to Afghanistan as security deteriorated showed the EU needed to accelerate efforts to build a common defense policy.”We need to draw lessons from this experience … as Europeans we have not been able to send 6,000 soldiers around the Kabul airport to secure the area. The US has been, we haven’t,” he said.Borrell said the 27-member EU should have an “initial entry force” of 5,000 soldiers. “We need to be able to act quickly.”In May, 14 EU countries including Germany and France proposed such a force, possibly with ships and aircraft, to help democratic foreign governments needing urgent help.First discussed in 1999 in connection with the Kosovo war, a joint system of battlegroups of 1,500 personnel each was set up in 2007 to respond to crises, but they have not been used because EU governments disagreed on how and when to deploy them.Borrell said it was time to be flexible, citing agreements made quickly to cope with the financial crisis as an example of how the EU could overcome restrictions in the deployment of military operations laid down in its constitutional treaties.”We can work in many different ways,” he said.Britain, long a reluctant EU member, was instrumental in the creation of the battlegroups in the 2000s but did not approve deployment as domestic opposition grew to anything that might resemble the creation of an EU army. With Britain’s departure from the bloc, the EU executive hopes the idea can be revived.But obstacles remain, including the lack of a common defense culture among the various EU members and differences over which countries should be given priority for deployment.

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US Aims Start to Bali Bombing War Crimes Case at Guantanamo

Three prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay detention center are expected to get their first day in court after being held for 18 years in connection with the deadly 2002 Bali nightclub bombings and other plots in Southeast Asia.Indonesian prisoner Encep Nurjaman, known as Hambali, and two Malaysians are to be arraigned Monday before a military commission on charges that include murder, conspiracy and terrorism. It is merely the first step in what could be a long legal journey for a case that involves evidence tainted by CIA torture, the same issue that is largely responsible for causing other war crimes cases to languish for years at Guantanamo.The hearing also comes as the Biden administration says it intends to close the detention center, where the U.S. still holds 39 of the 779 men seized in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and invasion of Afghanistan.The three men charged in connection with the nightclub bombings were held in secret CIA confinement for three years, followed by 15 more at the isolated U.S. base in Cuba.The decision to charge them was made by a Pentagon legal official at the end of the Trump administration, complicating the effort to close the detention center, said Brian Bouffard, a lawyer for Mohammed Nazir bin Lep, one of the Malaysian men.That made it more difficult for the new administration to add any to the list of those who could potentially be transferred out of Guantanamo or even sent home. “It will even be harder after an arraignment,” Bouffard said.Whether the arraignment would actually take place was not certain. Lawyers have sought to put the case on hold for a number of reasons, including what they have said is insufficient access to interpreters and other resources to mount a defense. The accused were still expected to show up for the hearing.The Navy judge presiding over the case in the commission, a hybrid of military and civilian law, is expected to consider that question before the charges can be formally presented in a secure courtroom surrounded by coils of razor wire on the base.Nurjaman was a leader of Jemaah Islamiyah, a Southeast Asian militant group with ties to al-Qaida. The U.S. government says he recruited militants, including bin Lep and the other Malaysian charged in the case, Mohammed Farik bin Amin, for jihadist operations.Among the plots that al-Qaida and Jemaah Islamiyah carried out were the October 2002 suicide bombings of Paddy’s Pub and the Sari Club in Bali, Indonesia, and the August 2003 suicide bombing of the J.W. Marriott in Jakarta, Indonesia. The attacks together killed 213 people, including seven Americans, and injured 109 people, including six Americans. Dozens of victims were foreign tourists, mostly Australians.Prosecutors allege bin Lep and the other Malaysian, Mohammed Farik bin Amin, served as intermediaries in the transfer of money used to fund the group’s operations.All three were captured in Thailand in 2003 and transferred to CIA “black sites,” where they were brutalized and subjected to torture, according to a Senate Intelligence Committee report released in 2014. In 2006, they were moved to Guantanamo.It’s unclear why it’s taken so long to charge them before the military commission. Military prosecutors filed charges against the men in June 2017, but the Pentagon legal official who oversees Guantanamo cases rejected the charges for reasons that haven’t been publicly disclosed.The case has many elements that make it complex, including whether statements the men made to authorities can hold up in court because of the abuse they experienced in CIA custody, the fact that people have already been convicted, and in some cases executed, in Indonesia for the attack, and the long time it has taken to even bring charges — much less get to a trial at some point in the future.Some of these same issues have come up in the case against five Guantanamo prisoners charged for planning and aiding the Sept. 11 attacks. They were arraigned in May 2012 and remain in the pretrial phase, with no trial date yet scheduled.Bin Amin’s lawyer, Christine Funk, predicted a lengthy period of defense investigation that will require extensive travel, once the pandemic is over, to interview witnesses and look for evidence. Still, she said, her client is “anxious and eager to litigate this case and go home.”

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What Now for Afghans Desperate to Flee? 

Many Afghans harbor a bitter sense of betrayal. Others lament being left behind by Western governments they worked with over the past two decades but say they have little time for recriminations now and are focused on how they can get out of Afghanistan.Some are drawing hope from the Taliban’s promise to Western governments that once the final evacuation flights depart Tuesday, they won’t block Afghans who have legal documents, including passports and visas, from leaving the country on commercial flights when they resume.  But will the Taliban keep its promise? FILE – In this Aug. 20, 2021, file photo, Pakistani army soldier stands guard while Afghan people enter into Pakistan through a border crossing point, in Chaman, Pakistan. Chaman is a key border crossing between Pakistan and Afghanistan. “There’s no safe way for us, whether it is to Pakistan or Iran” says Esin, a 22-year-old student. She is hiding, along with her mother and two sisters. A student, Esin worked as a volunteer for the U.S. government. “Most of the roads are in the hands of the Taliban and under their rule and it will be very dangerous,” she said.As the Afghan evacuation was unfolding, NGOs and Western officials were being inundated by pleas from Afghans to help get them out. An Afghan who provided services for U.S. NGOs wrote last week to the manager of one project: “I am especially worried about the unclear fate of my two young daughters. The Taliban has come to my home several times for questioning, and neighbors have filmed their arrival. At the moment, I am with my family in a secret location in Kabul. But I am not feeling secure and they can reach me anytime. Please, please help me and my family, our life is in your hands.”The manager responded, “I wish I had the authority to do more for you and your family.”The desperate appeals made in hurried phone calls and increasingly frantic emails from thousands of Afghans were harrowing for officials and NGO workers who received them. They scrambled to find them flights, to get them included on evacuation lists or to secure visas for them, aching often with guilt that people who’d worked for them for years were now possibly being left in harm’s way. “We have been burning up the phones, comparing notes, and trying to guide our staff to safety,” an NGO executive told VOA. He asked for his name to be withheld. His NGO managed to evacuate 300 people but has left more than 200 behind. Exploring all options 
  
Like Afghans wanting to flee, some Western NGOs are also exploring overland routes to Pakistan, Iran, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, most of which are officially closed, but all of which are being crossed illegally by Afghans desperate enough to entrust their lives to smugglers.   
“We have not yet seen mass cross-border movement,” says Kathryn Mahoney, the global spokesperson for the UN’s refugee agency, UNCHR. “The large-scale displacement is still inside Afghanistan, where 3.5 million people have been displaced from their homes,” she told VOA. She said the agency’s border monitors have, though, reported several thousand crossing the border into Pakistan. “And we know from the Iranian authorities that several thousands of people have recently arrived from Afghanistan,” Mahoney continued. Afghan activists in Pakistan say they reckon 10,000 Hazara Shia have managed to cross into Pakistan the past ten days. The Hazara faced violent persecution from the Taliban in the 1990s because of their ethnicity and Shi’ite Muslim adherence. Mahoney said the UNCHR has been “intensifying our calls, I would say over the last week, to neighboring countries asking for the borders to be kept open.” She continued: “I think what’s really important to remind everybody is that Iran and Pakistan have been hosting most refugees who left Afghanistan over the past four decades. So they are not new to this. But we can’t take that for granted.” FILE – Children of Afghan refugees play outside tents in Afghan Basti area on the outskirts of Lahore, Pakistan, June 19, 2021.While welcoming the airlifts as “acts of solidarity,” Mahoney says they have “only benefited a very tiny fraction of the millions of Afghans who have been displaced.”Western governments have already started negotiations with some neighboring countries to reopen their borders, including Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, Western officials say.In the meantime, some nonprofits are already assessing overland routes. “We have started a course of action development, to use a military term,” says Adam DeMarco, an American military veteran and spokesperson for Allied Airlift 21, a non-profit that has been helping with the evacuations. “There are some opportunities. And we are using what we have with open-source intelligence to scope out overland routes and to assess the security threats and the danger,” he told VOA in a phone call.DeMarco said routes to Pakistan could be among the most dangerous because either they go through Taliban heartlands or through the Afghan provinces of Konar and Nangahar, strongholds of the Islamic Stated affiliate, which claimed responsibility for last week’s suicide bombing at Kabul airport. “In a lot of the conversations we’re having, we’re not even taking them into consideration, really,” he added.The safest routes inside Afghanistan are likely to be those heading to Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, he says, but then if anti-Taliban forces in the North led by Ahmad Massoud do mount an insurgency the “risk is that we might be sending people through the front lines of a civil war.” DeMarco says underground railroad type operations will be unsustainable in the long run unless they are being supported by Western governments and international organizations. The Tajikistan and Uzbekistan borders are currently closed to Afghans. Mohammad Zahir Agbar, Afghanistan’s ambassador in Dushanbe, told VOA he expects the Tajiks will start allowing Afghans to cross, if they get international support to handle the new refugees. “I do believe they are going to open the borders,” he said.   FILE – Border guards are seen at a checkpoint at the Uzbekistan-Afghanistan border in Ayritom, Uzbekistan, Aug. 15, 2021.Uzbekistan seems less inclined to do so and has been deterring Western organizations from setting up to run evacuation operations, according to Jake Simkin, a conflict photographer who left Afghanistan last week.Simkin says crossing the border into Uzbekistan is highly hazardous with Uzbek border guards ready to shoot. He has helped several U.S. nationals and residents enter Uzbekistan, but for Afghans it is almost impossible. “The Uzbeks have their army deployed to stop people,” he told VOA. “There is a wide river and some Afghans made rafts out of plastic bottles and tried to cross,” he says. They did not succeed.

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Internet Disrupted, Streets Quiet in South Sudan After Call for Protests 

Internet services in South Sudan were disrupted on Monday and security forces were deployed on the streets, which were quieter than usual as residents sheltered inside after activists had called for protests against President Salva Kiir’s government. With Kiir scheduled to address lawmakers at parliament’s opening session on Monday morning, a coalition of activist groups reiterated their call on Sunday for public rallies demanding he resign. However, there was no sign early on Monday of major street gatherings in the capital Juba. Some activists told Reuters they were in hiding for security reasons. Police said the activists had not sought permission to protest, and therefore any large demonstration would be illegal. “We deployed the forces at least to keep order in case of any problem. Those forces are in the streets for your safety,” police spokesperson Daniel Justin Boulogne said. In televised remarks to an elite unit on Sunday, Deputy Inspector-General of Police Lt Gen. James Pui Yak said authorities would not “harm anybody” to break up demonstrations. “They are just going to advise people … to go on with their normal lives, we don’t want any disruption.” Residents in Juba told Reuters that as of Sunday evening mobile data was unavailable on the network of South African mobile operator MTN Group, and by Monday morning it was also halted on the network of Kuwait-based operator Zain Group. Alp Toker, director of NetBlocks, a London-based group that monitors internet disruptions, said it detected “significant disruption to internet service in South Sudan beginning Sunday evening, including to leading cellular networks.” Deputy Information Minister Baba Medan told Reuters he could not comment immediately on the reported shutdown, as he was busy attending the opening of parliament. MTN did not immediately respond to a comment request. A spokesperson for Zain said he was checking with the South Sudan office. Activist Jame David Kolok, whose Foundation for Democracy and Accountable Governance is one of the groups that called for the demonstration, told Reuters that the internet shutdown was a sign “the authorities are panicking. ” The activists accuse Kiir’s government of corruption and failing to protect the population or provide basic services. Kiir’s government has repeatedly denied allegations from rights and advocacy groups of abuses and corruption.  

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Suspected Militants Kill 19 in Eastern Congo Village

Suspected Islamist militants killed at least 19 people in a raid on a village in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, local authorities said. The attackers looted houses and started fires in Kasanzi-Kithovo near Virunga National Park in North Kivu province overnight between Friday and Saturday, they said. “I don’t know where to go with my two children,” villager Kahindo Lembula, who lost four of her relatives in the attack, told Reuters by phone. “Only God will help us.” The head of Buliki district, Kalunga Meso, and local rights group CEPADHO blamed the assault on the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) — an Islamist militant group accused of killing thousands of people in recent years, mostly in remote areas. There was no immediate claim of responsibility and the ADF could not be reached. The government declared martial law in North Kivu and neighboring Ituri province at the beginning of May, in an attempt to quell a surge in violence that the military largely attributes to the ADF. But the number of civilians killed in such attacks has only increased since then, according to the Kivu Security Tracker, which maps unrest in eastern Congo. Earlier in August, President Felix Tshisekedi said special forces from the United States would soon deploy to the east to gauge the potential for a local anti-terrorism unit to combat Islamist violence. The ADF was blacklisted in March by Washington as a terrorist group. It has publicly aligned itself with Islamic State, which in turn has claimed responsibility for some of its Attacks. But in a June report, U.N. experts said they had found no evidence of direct support from Islamic State to the ADF. 

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US Evacuation Effort ‘Uninterrupted’ by Kabul Airport Rocket Attack 

The White House said Monday operations “continue uninterrupted” at the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, after a rocket attack. Witnesses reported multiple rockets, with a U.S. official telling Reuters they were intercepted by a missile defense system. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement that President Joe Biden had been briefed on the attack and “reconfirmed his order that commanders redouble their efforts to prioritize doing whatever is necessary to protect our forces on the ground.” US Airstrike Hits Attacker Targeting Kabul Airport Earlier, US President Joe Biden warned that another attack on the airport was likely soon The United States is working to complete evacuations from Kabul ahead of a Tuesday deadline, and amid a worsening security situation that included a suicide attack outside the airport Thursday that killed at least 169 Afghans and 13 U.S. service members. The U.S. military is also investigating reports of civilian casualties after it conducted an airstrike Sunday that it said eliminated “an imminent ISIS-K (Islamic State Khorasan) threat to Hamad Karzai International airport.” “We would be deeply saddened by any potential loss of innocent life,” Captain Bill Urban, CENTCOM spokesperson, said in a statement Sunday night.  Urban said the results of the airstrike were still being assessed and that secondary explosions “may have caused additional casualties. It is unclear what may have happened, and we are investigating further.” According to reporting in The New York Times, the drone strike or the secondary explosions killed as many as nine civilians, among them children.   Dina Mohammadi said her extended family resided in the building and that several of them were killed, including children, according to the Associated Press. She was not immediately able to provide the names or ages of the deceased.  Karim, a district representative, said the strike ignited a fire that made it difficult to rescue people. “There was smoke everywhere and I took some children and women out,” he said.  Ahmaduddin, a neighbor, said he had collected the bodies of children after the strike, which set off more explosions inside the house, AP reported.   Airlift winds downThe evacuation has airlifted about 120,00 people out of Kabul since the end of July, according to the White House as of early Sunday morning.    “This is the most dangerous time in an already extraordinarily dangerous mission, these last couple of days,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken told ABC’s This Week on Sunday.    Republican U.S. Senator Ben Sasse, also on ABC, criticized the Biden administration’s evacuation operations.  “There is clearly no plan. There has been no plan. Their plan has basically been happy talk,” he said.     Blinken said in an interview on CNN that about 300 American citizens are seeking evacuation from Afghanistan.  VOA White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara contributed to this report, which includes information from The Associated Press and Reuters.Carla Babb, Patsy Widakuswara contributed to this report.

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