Ashraf Ghani, Afghanistan’s former President, has apologised to Afghans for fleeing the country.
Gatekeepers News reports that Ghani, who assumed office in 2014 and was re-elected in February 2020, fled Afghanistan on August 15 after the Taliban took over major cities in the country and stormed Kabul. The Taliban assumed power immediately Ghani fled the country and announced a new Government which will be led by Mohammad Hasan Akhund on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, Ghani, who has taken refuge in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), said it was never his intent to “abandon the people”, insisting that he left to avoid bloodshed.
“Leaving Kabul was the most difficult decision of my life, but I believed it was the only way to keep the guns silent and save Kabul and her 6 million citizens,” Ghani tweeted.
The former Afghan leader also denied claims by a former Afghan ambassador to neighbouring Tajikistan, Zahir Aghbar, that he took about $169m with him when he left the country.
Ghani lamented that, like his predecessors, he too was unable to bring peace and prosperity to the war-torn country.
“It is with a deep and profound regret that my own chapter ended in a similar tragedy to my predecessors,” he said. “I apologize to the Afghan people that I could not make it end differently.”
