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Kabul, Afghanistan – Late Sunday afternoon, the Taliban hoisted their flag at the main roundabout in the northern city of Kunduz.
It was the third time in seven years that the armed group had succeeded in gaining control of what the government had hoped to be a model for all of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces.
Kunduz is the fifth capital of the northern province to fall to the Taliban in less than a week, and the sixth overall in the country. The fall of the cities comes amid an intensification of the Taliban offensive as US and NATO forces complete their final withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Residents speaking to Al Jazeera said the Taliban offensive on the eponymous capital began early Saturday morning and the following afternoon the group officially took control of Afghanistan’s fifth largest city.
Farhad, a trader who would give only his first name, said the town’s markets were in shambles.
Hundreds of storefronts have been destroyed in the fighting, leaving thousands of people with no income until they can rebuild.
However, as fighting continues in the city, this financial uncertainty could last for days, if not weeks, at a time when the Afghan economy is already devastated by growing insecurity and the COVID-19 pandemic.
A Taliban flag in the main square of Kunduz town [Abdullah Sahil/AP Photo]A video released by the Defense Ministry on Saturday showed commandos patrolling and firing from the area around one of the city’s closed markets.
Residents of Al Jazeera said the town’s main market caught fire on Sunday following a government airstrike targeting a nearby Taliban hideout.
Farhad’s electronics store was near the town’s main roundabout, it was also destroyed in the fire.
He said the airstrike had reduced hundreds of stores to ashes within minutes.
“There are airstrikes and clashes on the ground, who can go and put out the fires? said Farhad.
As the planes continue to fly over the skies of Kunduz, residents have remained locked in their homes, fearing to venture out and risk being caught in the crossfire.
Zabardarst Safi, the provincial police chief, said security forces were continuing their operations and trying to cleanse the town of the Taliban, but the armed group was creating additional challenges by breaking into the homes of civilians.
“The Taliban are in residential areas, so we have to be very careful not to harm civilians. “
He said caution could delay government efforts to regain control of the city.
Other residents said that despite their allegations of restoring order, the Taliban immediately began firing at civilians and security forces.
The Kunduz Regional Hospital said that on Monday they had treated at least 97 injured patients.
14 other patients were declared dead on arrival. They were all civilians.
However, residents said the actual death toll could be much higher as hundreds of residents remain stuck in their homes fearing to venture outside.
Civilian losses
The recourse to airstrikes by government forces and the use of mortars by the Taliban has resulted in increased civilian casualties in recent days, residents of Kunduz told Al Jazeera by telephone.
Video purporting to show a Taliban-fired mortar hitting residential property and killing a young man has been circulating online and is being used as evidence of indiscriminate attacks on civilian areas.
Those who can cope often end up rushing their dead to nearby cemeteries to bury them, rather than risking a 15-minute drive to the city’s main hospital, located on the way to the Intelligence Directorate. and the governor’s compound, both of which fell to the Taliban.
Although the Afghan Defense Ministry released video of an airstrike on alleged Taliban hideouts on the outskirts of the city, residents said Afghan national security forces suffered heavy casualties over the past 72 years. last hours.
Farzad, another Kunduz resident, said his brother, an injured policeman, was at the provincial police headquarters when the Taliban broke into the compound on Sunday morning.
Farzad said his brother was shot dead on the spot, adding that the Taliban started shooting on entering the compound, killing and injuring dozens of police officers.
Even those who managed to escape remain frightened.
Sediqa Sherzai, who runs a local radio and television station in the city, fled to Kabul 12 days ago, as she did in 2015, when the Taliban first captured Kunduz.
In recent weeks, Sherzai and his family had received repeated warnings from the Taliban to end their broadcasts. As the group drew closer to the city, the fear of his family grew.
Because its offices had already been burned down by the Taliban six years ago, they took the threats seriously, and in late July the family moved to Kabul.
“I have been personally threatened. I can tell you that the Taliban don’t want women to work in the media or even go out in public, ”Sherzai said.
But Sherzai said she was not alone, as dozens of other activists and professionals have fled the province in recent weeks.
“No one to hear our voices”
Fawzia Yaftali, deputy head of the Kunduz provincial council, said the Taliban’s latest takeover was another example of the government’s neglect of their province.
Over the past six years, the province has witnessed high crime rates and growing drug trafficking.
Residents said local security and government officials were involved in the trade, as well as mafias who relied on the Taliban for protection along the trafficking routes.
In addition, for years, Kunduz suffered from the violence of air and drone attacks and the alleged abuse of government-backed strongmen.
All of this, according to locals like Yaftali, has weakened government and security institutions in their already vulnerable province.
Yaftali said that on Friday she and other local leaders asked the defense and interior ministries for help, but their calls went unanswered.
“We have informed the senior officials in Kabul to take some sort of measure for Kunduz because the Taliban are planning a major attack on the city, but they have not taken our warning seriously,” Yaftali said.
People inspect damaged stores after fighting between Taliban and Afghan security forces in the town of Kunduz [Abdullah Sahil/AP Photo]Yaftali and other residents of Kunduz said the province’s other eight districts had been in Taliban hands for months.
This despite the fact that in 2015 President Ashraf Ghani hoped to use Kunduz as an example of the sweeping security reforms he wanted to bring to all of the country’s provinces.
Locals say that rather than securing the province, Kunduz has become more and more dangerous with each passing year.
“There is no one to hear our voices,” said Farhad, the trader, “except God”.
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