Taliban takeover: No Nigerian in Afghanistan, says FG

The Federal Government has declared that there is no Nigerian in Afghanistan who needs evacuation, following the takeover of the country by the Taliban.

The Nigerians in Diaspora Commission explained that its findings indicated that no Nigerian national resided in the country.

Findings also indicate that Nigeria has no high commission or consulate in the Asian country.

Against the backdrop of the desperation by many foreigners as well as Afghans to leave the country, the NiDCOM spokesman, Abdul-rahman Balogun, told one of our correspondents on Friday that there was no record of any Nigerian citizen living in the country.

Tens of thousands of people have been flown out of the country since August 13, two days before the Taliban seized control of Kabul, the Afghanistan capital.

Several other countries have wound up their evacuation operations already ahead of US forces pulling out at the end of August.

This comes as two explosions were reported outside Kabul airport on Thursday, with fatalities and injuries.

According to reports, approximately 88,000 people have been evacuated.

United States Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, said around 4,500 Americans had been flown out, with diplomats in touch with 500 more. The US believes around 1,500 American citizens remain in Afghanistan.

The United Kingdom has also evacuated 15, 000 people under the Operation Pitting Evacuation mission.

The French Prime Minister, Jean Castex, told RTL radio that, at least 2,000 Afghans and 100 French people had been evacuated by France since the beginning of the operation on August 16.

Germany’s Bundeswehr has reportedly managed to safely evacuate more than 5,100 people, including over 3,600 Afghans.

Others include The Netherlands, who have evacuated 1, 000 plus people; Denmark, 1,000; Belgium, 1,400; Sweden, 771; Norway, 374; Hungary, 540; Poland, 900; Lithuania, 50; Bulgaria, 29; Canada, 3,700: Australia, 4,000; New Zealand, 200; Turkey, 1,400, and Russia, 360.

When contacted by our correspondent if the Federal Government had plans to evacuate citizens from Afghanistan, the NiDCOM spokesman, Balogun, “We don’t have any Nigerian in Afghanistan. That’s why we are not carrying out evacuation from the country.”