Not less than eight Westerners have been detained in Kabul.
AFP through Getty Pictures
Two journalists working for the United Nations have been detained in the Afghan capital of Kabul, the worldwide company mentioned in a tweet Friday — with stories of at the least eight different Westerners additionally held within the war-torn nation.
“Two journalists with UNHCR and Afghan nationals working with them have been detained in Kabul. We're doing our utmost to resolve the state of affairs, in coordination with others,” the UNHCR mentioned in a tweet.
“We'll make no additional remark given the character of the state of affairs.”
Amongst them is former BBC reporter Andrew North, Afghanistan’s former vice chairman Amrullah Saleh mentioned.
“Andrew was in Kabul working for the UNHCR @Refugees making an attempt to assist the folks of Afghanistan,” his spouse Natalia Antelava mentioned in a tweet. “We're extraordinarily involved for his security & name on anybody with affect to assist safe his launch.”
Saleh additionally claimed that eight different Westerners have been “kidnapped” by the Taliban, which seized energy final 12 months amid the chaotic withdrawal of US troops.
“Resulting from no media, no reporting by residents & a suffocating environment corruption, crime & atrocities aren’t effectively uncovered,” he tweeted Friday.
“For example 9 residents of western international locations have been kidnapped amongst them Andrew North of BBC & Peter Juvenal proprietor of Gandomak Restaurant.”
A member of a Taliban intelligence unit in Kabul instructed the Washington Submit that “a number of overseas nationals” have been arrested in Kabul on fees of working for Western intelligence businesses.
The BBC’s overseas editor, Paul Danahar, mentioned in a tweet that North “is working for the UN in Kabul.”
“He's a former colleague and a revered journalist,” he added.
“All inquiries about his state of affairs, which his mates and colleagues are clearly involved about, ought to be directed to the UN.”
Taliban authorities spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid mentioned the authorities have been trying into the matter, Agence France-Presse reported.
“We now have acquired details about this and try to substantiate whether or not they have been detained or not,” he mentioned.
Information of the detentions comes as a British delegation led by Hugo Shorter, the Qatar-based head of the UK’s mission to Afghanistan, flew to Kabul to fulfill with Overseas Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi on Thursday.
Shorter mentioned he has mentioned the humanitarian disaster in addition to human rights abuses with the Taliban, who're making an attempt to win worldwide legitimacy amid a crippling monetary disaster sparked by the freezing of help and property held overseas.
Not less than 50 Afghan media employees have been arrested or detained by police or the Taliban intelligence company, in response to Reporters With out Borders.
The Committee to Defend Journalists mentioned the arrests have been “a tragic reflection of the general decline of press freedom and growing assaults on journalists underneath Taliban rule,” AFP reported.
For the reason that Taliban seized energy, the UN has been specializing in how one can present important humanitarian help to tens of millions of individuals throughout the nation.
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