A doctor calmly returns to work in western Afghanistan, while on the other side of the country in the capital, Kabul, a woman hides in her house, too terrified to go outside as Taliban fighters roam the streets — and this while, at the airport north of the city, a South African contractor witnesses chaotic scenes with panicking civilians blocking the runways as they beg for flights to safety.
These were just some of the first-hand stories coming out of Afghanistan last week as Kabul fell to the Taliban, almost without a fight after their lightning-fast offensive across the country.
In Herat, 820km west of Kabul, Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) project coordinator Mamman Mustapha told Sunday Times Daily that the situation in the area was currently calm.
“At the moment the fighting has ceased and we are seeing more and more patients coming to our healthcare facilities compared to previous weeks,” he said.
After a ceasefire, staff at the three MSF clinics in the area had seen a surge in patients, especially for malnutrition as well as injuries from the fighting, Mustapha said.
For the past two weeks, during the conflict, there was an increasing number of war wounded coming in to the regional hospital.
— MSF project coordinator Mamman Mustapha
“For the past two weeks, during the conflict, there was an increasing number of war wounded coming in to the regional hospital,” he said.
However, despite the uneasiness of the calm there was a sense of things returning to normal, he said.
“For the moment shops are open, people are moving around, doing normal business. The situation is calm now but everyone is monitoring the situation.”
There were some 300 Afghanis — many of them women — and 10 international staff working for MSF in the area. All staff were reporting for work, Mustapha said.
“We are monitoring the security situation. As long as it is safe for us to work, we are going to continue,” he said.
“While people are worried about how the situation will evolve, MSF is trying to explain what we are doing and the importance of our activity. So far everyone is aware,” he said.
Hundreds of kilometres away in Kabul, however, Maryam* had spent the past week hiding in her house, too terrified to go outside.
“I had a good life, I was living comfortably,” she told Sunday Times Daily. “But in the last few days, the Taliban has attacked our country and we are not secure.”
Maryam said the Taliban’s claims that Afghan women’s hard-earned rights would be respected were untrue, and that all the progress she and others had made over the past two decades had “come to zero”.
“They are not giving any protection or security to anyone in Kabul,” she said. “It is just a ‘drama’ they are doing on TV and social media.”
Meanwhile, she was trapped in her house, unable even to go to the doctor.
“We are just nothing now. We are prisoners in our houses.”
Maryam begged the UN to help the country.
“We cannot live like this any more. We will lose everything in a few days.”
Taliban forces reached the outskirts of Kabul more than a week ago, catching the capital’s residents by surprise.
Many fled for the illusory safety of the airport, which was partly controlled by the US military.
A South African contractor, who spoke to Sunday Times Daily as US Apache gunship helicopters thudded overhead, described the chaotic scenes on Monday as thousands of people breached the airport perimeter and overran the commercial section of the airport and the runways.
“Everybody’s evacuating,” he said. “The airport at Kabul is just crazy with locals trying to flee the country which makes it difficult for the rest of us.”
Commercial flights were suspended as US troops battled to clear people off the runways and only military flights were operating for much of the week.
It was not only people who had helped the US, Nato and UN missions who were trying to flee but anyone who feared the return of Taliban rule, the contractor said.
“It’s everybody who believes everything’s going to go back to how it was before,” he said to a backdrop of machine-gun fire. “It’s chaos.”
The contractor, who declined to divulge his employer’s name or the nature of his work, had been working in the north of the country, when his firm ordered him back to Kabul after the Taliban offensive began in earnest.
The Taliban had said expats’ lives were not in danger and that it wanted the evacuation to run smoothly, he added.
The US had been “caught with its pants down”, he added.
“They’ve handled this situation very badly. I don’t think they expected what’s going on here now,” he said.
After hearing from a South African colleague that hundreds of South African contractors and other foreign nationals had been left to fend for themselves, law enforcement officer and former US paratrooper Mike Weiss launched an appeal on his YouTube channel, LMS Tactical, for people to pressure US government officials to help the stranded people.
Weiss had since been flooded with pleas for help, including from Afghan special forces soldiers, he told Sunday Times Daily.
On Friday, there were nearly 60 people on his list including 21 South Africans, five Ugandans and five Zimbabweans trapped in Afghanistan, along with 10 Afghanis.
“These people were doing different jobs,” he said. “They’re feeling abandoned and they’re terrified.”
The only way the US could salvage any self-respect from its hasty withdrawal would be to try save those who had worked for the Americans during the 20-year occupation, he said.
“SA contractors have been risking their asses for American brass for 21 years,” he said.
“So if I’ve gotta throw guilt grenades around until somebody picks one up, then that’s what I want to do,” he said.
If I’ve gotta throw guilt grenades around until somebody picks one up, then that’s what I want to do.
— Former US paratrooper Mike Weiss
He said a state department official had confirmed to him on the phone that the US would attempt to evacuate everyone whose names were on the official state department list.
Weiss, who has been posting regular updates on the unfolding situation along with advice on how to access the forms online, said he had been unable to get any commitment from the state department that everyone on the list would be reached in time.
“It was ‘we’ll put them on a list’,” he said. “I feel very frustrated. But who knows — you light one candle at a time. If we save one guy then it’s worth everything.”
Meanwhile, 8,500km from Kabul, Eastern Cape-based security contractor David Phelan had asked marooned South African contractors or their families to contact him for help.
However Phelan, who had previously worked in Afghanistan and who has a friend trapped in Kabul, said only a few South African citizens had contacted him for assistance to leave the country.
“You’ve seen some of the propaganda it [the Taliban] has been putting out, that it’s all kumbaya,” he said.
I was fucking perturbed on Monday and Tuesday but when my friend phoned me from Kabul, it changed my day around. He knows what he’s doing. He stayed alive there for 14 years. He’s not an idiot.
— Security contractor David Phelan
His contact said expats still in Afghanistan had been told the Taliban needed the international community and that foreigners would not be harmed.
Taliban fighters had also allegedly distributed pamphlets throughout the city with a contact number for people to call if they were abused by anyone claiming to be Taliban.
“I was fucking perturbed on Monday and Tuesday but when my friend phoned me from Kabul, it changed my day around,” he said. “He knows what he’s doing. He stayed alive there for 14 years. He’s not an idiot.”
While Phelan thought the situation could deteriorate, there was no reason the Taliban would renege on the deal.
“It has won the fight. The Afghan army has folded, the US has pulled out. So it doesn’t have a threat,” he said. “I was expecting to see bodies hanging from the lamp poles on day two or three.”
However, the fighters were looking for a friend of his who had previously worked as an interpreter.
“They’ve already been knocking on his door, asking [his wife]: ‘Where is your husband?’ They knew he worked for the government so he’s on their list. He’s going to be in shit, one way or the other. Whether he’s going to lose his head or not, I don’t know.”
*Names have been changed.
