Afghanistan: barefoot and without millions of dollars, such was the flight of the former president of the country when the Taliban arrived

Barefoot, without millions of dollars in luggage, as he was accused, and hiding, this is how he escaped from Kabul former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani in a helicopter last August 15, when the capital fell to the Taliban.

The latest report by the Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) of the United States collected about thirty testimonies about the days and hours leading up to the fall of Kabulin an attempt to trace the millions of dollars of cash hidden in presidential palace.

That day, Ghani agreed to leave the country only when the adviser National securityHamdullah Mohib and the head of the Presidential Security Service (PPS), Kaher Kochai, put pressure on him, convincing him that they were going to kill him, the document says.

“The departure was so sudden that the President was barefoot, which forced kochai looking for the president’s shoes,” an Afghan official told SIGAR.

BEFORE THE FALL

US troops they began the final phase of their withdrawal from Afghanistan in early May 2021, a chaotic withdrawal after more than 20 years of war that left Afghan forces without critical support. Since then, one province after another has begun to fall to the Taliban at a rate not seen in two decades of conflict.

August 13 Ghani held a meeting in his office with the Vice President Amrullah Salehministers of the interior, defense and senior staff to discuss the fall of the city of Herat, which had become the eleventh provincial capital taken by the rebels a day earlier.

At the meeting they were too worried to understand why Afghan forces left their posts, “until then no one took up the defense Kabul”, said a former government official who was present at the meeting.

On Saturday, the day before the fall of Kabul, Logar surrendered and Nangarhar was already under threat, “basically we were witnessing the collapse of the ANSF (Afghan National Defense and Security Forces),” said another official who, after receiving all the reports, knew that “collapse is inevitable.”

THE FALL

Reports claimed that on the morning of Sunday, August 15, the Taliban began to invade Kabuland hundreds of state and palace employees they started to runthere are only a dozen of them left, including guards from Ghani.

Those who remained tried to contact the security authorities responsible for Kabul. But we couldn’t find Minister of Defense nor the Chief of the General Staff. The Ministry of Defense said that no one was left in the building,” another official told SIGAR.

same Ghani he talked to the interior minister and the head of national security, “he told them to send people to the city to maintain order. But they had no one. That day, the policemen came to work in civilian clothes under uniform,” he recalled.

EXIT

Around noon Ghani agreed to evacuate First Lady Rulu Ghani, and according to another official, the president was refusing to leave the country, unsuccessfully trying to meet with the defense secretary to make sure Kabul.

With the first lady and close aides aboard four helicopters ready to take off, Kochai and Mohib decided to return to convince the president, confident that if he stayed, “he would be killed.”

After the secret evacuation Ghani He was taken to the helicopter. Before takeoff, a presidential guard approached one of the helicopters, pointed his rifle and yelled “Allahu Akbar” (God is great) before being molested by other PPS guards as the helicopters took off, another official, who believed it would be the end of everything, said.

Four aircraft from Ghani and fifty of his employees, who could not make it to the airport to board the plane that was supposed to take them to the United Arab Emirates, took a long helicopter flight to Uzbekistan.

MILLIONS OF DOLLARS

SIGAR was trying to trace millions of dollars of cash that were allegedly in presidential palaceas well as tens of millions of other funds in the hands of officials who abandoned Kabul last year.

Embassy of Russia in Kabul told the press that $169 million was on board the helicopters. Ghani and its allies deny, and that it could be closer to $500,000, according to SIGAR.

According to all witnesses interviewed by SIGAR, luggage on board was minimal, with some containing personal items and others containing cash. first ladywho managed to get ready, had two suitcases, mostly clothes, and about $800.

Given the route the helicopters followed, the required fuel supplies and the excess number of passengers, SIGAR estimates it is unlikely that the money will travel with them, given the volume that will be involved.

According to data from American Numismatic Association Used by SIGAR, 169 million hundred dollar bills folded end-to-end form a block 2.2 meters long, one meter wide and one meter high.

“This block was supposed to weigh 1688 kg, or almost 2 tons,” he calculated.

In response to a questionnaire sent by SIGAR to Ghanihis lawyer explained that the former president had assets accumulated during a fruitful professional career in USA before he became president, and this resulted in about $ 5 million declared Ghani before taking office as president.

This money was taken by the first lady and President Ghani to the palace when they settled there after their first victory in 2014,” the letter says.

“Unfortunately, the vast majority of his personal belongings, including cash, computers and documents, were left there when he left Afghanistan on August 15, 2021 and were eventually stolen,” he explained.

EFE