Ranking Member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of Parliament, Mr. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa is requesting the government of Ghana to undertake search and identification in Afghanistan after the Islamic group Taliban took over power in the troubled country.
If Ghana needs to evacuate its citizen in Afghanistan, Mr. Okudzeto said ”first of all, Ghana will have to carry out a search and identifying mission to know if there are Ghanaians in Afghanistan.
He continued that, the search mission will be necessary since Ghana does not maintain a foreign mission or Embassy adding that there are a number of international organizations in Afghanistan and a number of countries that have identified their nationals who work within these organizations and are carrying out the evacuation.
“The first thing we need to do is to carry out the search and identifying the mission and to see if these organizations these Ghanaians work for are really taking care of them and have planned to evacuate them and featuring them on various evacuation missions”, Mr. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa said.
According to him, so far, at the Foreign Affair Committee in Parliament, there is no information as to whether Ghana has begun any identifying mission to evacuate Ghanaians in the region.
What is happening in Afghanistan?
The hardline Islamic group Taliban captured Kabul exactly a week ago having swept across the country as foreign forces withdrew.
Their victory returns the group to power 20 years on from when they were toppled in a US-led invasion.
The group’s previous stint in power saw widespread abuses, including public executions and banning women from the workplace.
Taliban carrying out a door-to-door manhunt
Taliban have stepped up their search for people who worked for NATO Forces or the previous Afghan government, a UN document has warned.
The UN said the militants have been going door-to-door to find targets and threaten their family members.
The hardline Islamist group has tried to reassure Afghans since seizing power in a lightning offensive, promising there would be “no revenge”.
But there are growing fears of a gap between what they say and what they do.
Foreign powers are continuing efforts to get their nationals out of Afghanistan. A NATO official said on Friday that more than 18,000 people have been evacuated in the last five days from Kabul airport.
Outside the airport the situation remains chaotic. The Taliban have been blocking Afghans trying to flee, with one video showing a child being handed to a US soldier
