Tense flight from Afghanistan: two other Argentines were rescued from Kabul but the last remains to be evacuated

After the Taliban took power in Afghanistan, images of extreme violence intensified and the desperation of people to flee the country shook the world. In this context, orThe two Argentines were able to leave Kabul today, but the UN official has not yet been evacuated. In total, there were four residing in this city: the first was evacuated yesterday.

Foreign Ministry sources confirmed Infobae that the couple who work for an NGO boarded a plane bound for Germany, with a previous stopover in Uzbekistan.

The operation was led by the NGO Cristina SERVE, based in Kabul, in which Argentines worked by carrying out community assistance tasks for the most deprived.

These two Argentines – who had entered Afghanistan on a British visa – they were staying in a hotel near Kabul airport which was protected by British troops. They were awaiting the arrival of the plane which would finally take them out of the country after more than a week of anguish and despair.

“The director of the NGO sent them to the airport escorted by soldiers and they boarded an American military flight filled with English people”, state official sources.

The rescue was negotiated with US authorities in Kabul, who were told to use their airlift to leave the country. In fact, they had already completed the application for repatriation assistance from Kabul to the United States Embassy.

If this possibility did not materialize, the Argentine government had already thought of a plan B, which consisted in activating a rescue request through the American National Security Council, in charge of Jake Sullivan, with whom President Alberto Fernández met in Olivos on August 3.

Although the Taliban high command has agreed with the United States that they will allow it to carry out the evacuation plan of some 30,000 people, whether diplomats, American citizens or Afghans who have helped this government, all fear for their lives.

To carry out the rescue operation, The United States approved the dispatch of 6,000 troops who will be in charge of security and evacuations on the ground. That number is more than double the number of US troops in Afghanistan when the withdrawal was announced in May.

Infobae He contacted the wife of the NGO SERVE but did not wish to make a statement. She was very angry with Argentinian television stations which broadcast her names because they feared that the Taliban could find her and prevent her evacuation.

Her main fear was that the Taliban would act against her and the rest of her NGO members as they had done in the past. In 2001, when the insurgents took power, they closed the NGO Serve on because they were Christians and in 2008 they killed one of its members.

The fatal victim was identified as Gayle Williams, 34, who was shot and killed by gunmen on motorcycles in downtown Kabul.

Williams, who had dual British and South African nationality, worked for SERVE Afghanistan (Serving Emergency Relief and Vocational Enterprise) helping people with disabilities.

Now the one waiting to be evacuated is the UN official. “Stay at the airport. The flight should have left for Kazakhstan yesterday but was then postponed until this morning. We understand that the flight has already landed in Kabul and its departure is imminent “, they specified in this way of the Chancellery.

While the Kabul International Airport remains open to commercial flights, This Monday, he had to suspend his flights because a crowd tried to board a United States Air Force plane and many of those who were hooked to the turbine fell into the void once it took off.

Yesterday, the first to leave the hostile territory was an Argentinian who works as a pilot for an NGO. He did so on a plane of his own organization which was in place to carry out transfers and logistics within that country with his Brazilian wife and their two children of the same nationality.

Infobae contacted the pilot, who only confirmed what had happened and apologized for not being able to provide further details. “We’re fine, we left the country this morning. Sorry, but we can’t give interviews, ”he said, referring to the trip that took them to Uzbekistan.

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