Chaos in Kabul: Afghan citizens dying in stampedes, falling off aircraft

Following the exit of the Afghan president yesterday, and the subsequent Taliban takeover of Afghanistan’s capital city of Kabul, droves of civilians are swarming the streets in order to escape the city in any way they can.

Kabul Airport in Limbo

The Kabul airport is in a frenzy as the U.S. military has been sending off planes carrying their own personnel and Afghan nationals. But the situation on the ground shows that it simply isn’t enough.

Due to the lack of evacuation support, masses of people have covered the airstrip in the hope that they will somehow be put on the next flight out. This has led to multiple civilian deaths, several of which have been attributed to stampedes at the airport. Some casualties have been caused by falls from an aircraft in mid-flight.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Kabul Airport: At least 5 persons died from this stampede. <a href="https://t.co/hxNTnGKlAr">https://t.co/hxNTnGKlAr</a></p>&mdash; NEFERTITI (@firstladyship) <a href="https://twitter.com/firstladyship/status/1427225393409503235?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 16, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
In the above video you can see people swarming around a U.S. Air Force aircraft, with some clinging to the sides of the plane as a desperate bid to escape.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Unbelievable and tragic, two people who tied themselves to an airplane wheel falling from high as the aircraft takes off. Via <a href="https://twitter.com/AsvakaNews?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@AsvakaNews</a><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Afghanistan?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Afghanistan</a> <a href="https://t.co/PXAmCxautu">pic.twitter.com/PXAmCxautu</a></p>&mdash; Ali Hashem علي هاشم (@alihashem_tv) <a href="https://twitter.com/alihashem_tv/status/1427184588204478468?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 16, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Other videos show dead civilians littering the tarmac, which has been pointed to as most likely being the result of the stampedes following each outgoing flight. The chaos at the airport has caused flights to be delayed, and evacuation efforts to be postponed.

According to CNN, the frenzy forced flights to stagnate earlier today. Since then flights have resumed, although it appears that within the next day or so those efforts will ignore many people in need of assistance.