Associated Press
The United Nations refugee agency is gearing up for as many as half a million people or more to flee from Afghanistan in a “worse-case scenario” in the coming months.
UNHCR says the situation in Afghanistan following the Taliban takeover last week “remains uncertain and may evolve rapidly,” with up to 515,000 new refugees fleeing.
The prediction came as evacuation flights from Afghanistan resumed with new urgency on Friday, a day after two suicide bombings targeted the thousands of people desperately fleeing a Taliban takeover and killed more than 100. The U.S. warned more attacks could come ahead of next week’s end to America’s longest war.
The agency said that would add to the 2.2 million Afghans who already are registered as refugees abroad — nearly all of them in Pakistan and Iran.
“The upsurge of violence across the country and the fall of the elected government may have a serious impact on civilians and cause further displacement,” the plan said.
The agency cited estimates that 558,000 people have been internally displaced within Afghanistan due to armed conflict this year alone – four in five of them women and children. “UNHCR estimates that the number of displaced will rise, both internally and across border,” it said.
Najeeba Wazedafost, CEO of the Asia Pacific Refugee Network, in an online UNHCR news conference on Friday, warned of “coming darkness” in Afghanistan amid a “tragically intertwined series of crises.”
The U.N. agency is seeking nearly $300 million for its response plan for inter-agency requirements.
As the call to prayer echoed through Kabul along with the roar of departing planes, the anxious crowds outside the city’s airport appeared as large as ever. They are acutely aware that the window is closing to board a flight before the airlift ends and Western troops withdraw.
Thursday’s bombings near the airport killed at least 95 Afghans and 13 U.S. troops, Afghan and U.S. officials said, in the deadliest day for American forces in Afghanistan since August 2011.
Afghan officials warned that the toll could rise, with morgues stretched to capacity and the possibility that relatives are taking bodies away from the scene. One official said as many as 169 may have died. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
At least 10 bodies lay on the grounds outside Kabul’s Wazir Akbar Khan Hospital, where relatives said the mortuary could take no more. Afghans said many of the dead are unclaimed because family members are travelling from distant provinces.
In an emotional speech Thursday night, President Joe Biden blamed the Islamic State group’s Afghanistan affiliate, which is far more radical than the Taliban fighters who seized power less than two weeks ago in a lightning blitz across the country.
“We will rescue the Americans; we will get our Afghan allies out, and our mission will go on,” Biden said. But despite intense pressure to extend Tuesday’s deadline and his vow to hunt down those responsible, he has cited the threat of more terrorist attacks as a reason to keep to his plan — as the Taliban have repeatedly insisted he must.
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Republished with permission from The Associated Press.
