Afghanistan: Another flight with refugees left Kabul but the United States blocked the arrival of evacuees for “health security reasons”

United States halted all Afghan evacuee flights from two overseas air bases after detecting a limited measles epidemic, an obstacle which, according to US officials will seriously affect evacuation operations.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency has made the decision to stop flights from U.S. bases in Germany and Qatar on the recommendation of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to a federal government document consulted by the agency PA. The document indicated unspecified “health problems”.

The White House press secretary, Jen psaki, said the temporary suspension stemmed from the discovery of four cases of measles among those who arrived in the United States.

The United States led medical exams and other procedures for evacuees at these two major bases and at others where they are taken from Afghanistan.

The disruption of flights is a problem for the United States in part because many evacuees have been at the Ramstein base for more than 10 days, the limit set by Germany to allow the use of its territory as a place of transit.

The document to which the PA says that the interruption “will have a serious impact“Base operations and”will negatively affect“To the nearly 10,000 evacuees from Ramstein, many of whom have been there for more than 10 days and are showing signs of fatigue.

Evacuations in Afghanistan resume

About 20 years after the September 11 attacks in the United States, which meant the end of his regime in Afghanistan, the Taliban are trying to consolidate their power in the country, where citizen evacuation flights have resumed.

Thursday a plane with a hundred foreigners and Afghans on board he landed in Doha and this Friday another flight to Qatar took off with 49 French people and members of their families on board.

Besides, 32 other U.S. citizens and permanent residents left Afghanistan through various means backed by Washington on Friday, the White House said.

Nineteen US citizens left Kabul on a Qatar Airways flight, National Security Council spokesperson Emily Horne said. As, Two other citizens and 11 people with permanent residence in the United States left Afghanistan by land, he added.

Horne reiterated his gratitude to Qatar, where about half of the 123,000 people evacuated by the United States have passed. before leaving Afghanistan completely.

Today’s departures show how we are providing Americans with clear and secure options to leave Afghanistan from different locations.Horne said in a statement. “We will continue to offer proven options for the start. It is up to the Americans who remain (in Afghanistan) if they choose to take them, ”he added.

The evacuees on Thursday were the first to leave the country since the massive and chaotic evacuations ended., in which 123,000 people left in two weeks, just before foreign troops concluded their withdrawal from Afghanistan.

This resumption of flights is a promise What, According to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, do the taliban to foreign contacts: that people who want to leave the country can do so.

The US government admitted Thursday that the Taliban had shown “flexibility” and had been “professional.” on the organization of these flights.

“They looked for an excuse to come”

It is not known how the Islamist movement, which announced this week the composition of its government, will remember the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks in the United States, which marked the beginning of the American offensive which ended his government (1996-2001).

Unconfirmed information indicates that Taliban to hold inauguration ceremony for new government, which arouses the mistrust of the international community, which does not consider it representative of Afghan society since it is made up only of Taliban men of the Pashtun ethnic group.

In memory of many Afghans, We remember September 11, 2001 linked to the death of Ahmad Shá Masud, hero of the resistance during the invasion of the Soviet Union in the 1980s and against the Taliban, assassinated by Al Qaida on September 9, 2001.

After a few days, The Afghans learned that Al Qaida and its leader, Osama bin Laden, who was living in hiding in his own country, had organized the attacks. The Americans blamed the Taliban, in power since 1996, for protecting al-Qaeda.

Faced with the Taliban’s refusal to deliver Bin Laden to them, The United States invades Afghanistan at the head of a coalition and overthrows the Islamist regime in a few weeks.

(With information from AFP)

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