There are reports that Afghanistan’s President; Ashraf Ghani, is in the United Arab Emirates, following the sudden take over by the Taliban. This was revealed in a statement on Wednesday by the Afghanistan foreign ministry.
“The UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation can confirm that the UAE has welcomed President Ashraf Ghani and his family into the country on humanitarian grounds,” the ministry said.
News of his whereabouts comes days after he fled Kabul as the Taliban closed in on the city.
Ghani who is now being referred to as ‘Former Afghanistan President’ through a Facebook video message posted on Wednesday,
restated that he left the country to avoid bloodshed. He also said that he wanted to prevent Afghanistan from becoming like Syria and Yemen, and avert the “dreadful disaster” of “being hanged” had he remained in office.
“The decision was made that whatever happened 25 years ago would be repeated if I had stayed the President of Afghanistan. I would have been hanged in front of the eyes of the people of Afghanistan and this would have been a dreadful disaster in our history,” he said.
According to a report from CNN, Ghani also rejected accusations that he left the country with a large amount of money, calling it a “baseless lie.”
“These accusations were all unsubstantiated and untrue, and I refuse them. I reject them, with strong words,” Ghani said.
Ghani’s departure was precipitated by the United States’ withdrawal from Afghanistan, which opened a clear path for the Taliban to take on and defeat the Afghan security forces. Last week, major cities and provinces fell to Taliban fighters with little to no resistance.
US intelligence analysts had predicted it would take several weeks before the civilian government in Kabul fell to the Taliban. But on August 15, the Taliban took control of the presidential palace in the capital while Ghani quietly made his exit.
Ghani’s abrupt departure was criticized for leaving Afghans to an uncertain fate under the Taliban.
Afghanistan’s then-acting defense minister, General Bismillah Mohammadi, slammed Ghani in a brief tweet Sunday, writing: “They tied our hands behind our backs and sold the homeland, damn the rich man and his gang.”
Afghan Chairman of the High Council for National Reconciliation, Abdullah Abdullah, said on Sunday that God would hold Ghani “accountable and the people of Afghanistan will also judge him” for putting them and the country “in such a bad situation.”
The 72yrs old former President defended his move on Wednesday, explaining that events had unfolded in a “hasty way” and he had been working to ensure a peaceful transition of power with the Taliban.
“Those who think that I fled the country, my message is that you should not judge if you do not have all the information and details,” he said.
Meanwhile, there is a lot of chaos still going on in Afghanistan as nationals are struggling to leave the country for the fear of the treatment and hardship ahead of them.
