BREAKING: US-backed President leaves Afghanistan as Taliban takeover of govt imminent
By OUR REPORTER
President of Middle East nation of Afghanistan, Ashraf Ghani, has fled the country soon after assuring citizens of their safety in the face of a Taliban takeover.
The president’s office told Reuters news agency that it “cannot say anything about Ashraf Ghani’s movement for security reasons”.
Updates from Kabul, the nation’s capital revealed that President Ghani, whose Administration has been imposed on the Arab country, left Afghanistan as Taliban closed in on Kabul, according to the country’s top peace negotiator Abdullah Abdullah.
“The former Afghan president has left the nation,” Abdullah, the head of the High Council for National Reconciliation, said in a video on his Facebook page.
A senior interior ministry official told Reuters news agency that Ghani left for Tajikistan.
Ghani’s departure comes amid negotiations for a peaceful transfer of power after Taliban fighters encircled Kabul after capturing 26 of the country’s 34 provincial capitals in less than two weeks.
Meanwhile, a Taliban official told Reuters they were checking reports about Ghani’s departure from the country.
On Sunday, Taliban troops surrounded Afghanistan’s seat of power, promising it had instructed its fighters to refrain from violence and offer safe passage to anyone wishing to leave Kabul.
