Afghanistan: five years since the Taliban retook power

Afghan journalist Nelufar Hedayat comments in The Guardian:

“Five years ago today, the brittle peace of the fragile new democracy was shattered by the withdrawal of western military, diplomatic and charitable groups that had intervened in the country’s fate since 2001. Overnight, on Sunday, 15 August 2021, Afghanistan was undone and abandoned. … We all knew what was coming, though the rest of the world seemed to lag behind. … Now, there’s so little to do, such little movement possible, that almost everyone I speak to in Afghanistan sounds as though they’re suffocating. There is no distraction nor relief from the abject suffering of everyday Afghan people.”