Former Afghanistan president defends decision to flee country

Afghanistan’s former president Ashraf Ghani said it was “the hardest thing” to leave Afghanistan, as he defended his decision to flee Kabul in the hours before the Taliban seized control.

Speaking to former chief of defence, General Sir Nick Carter, for his guest-edited edition of the Today Programme, Ghani claimed he had “no inkling” on the morning of the 15th August that he would leave the country later that day.

Former president Ghani said he was told the Afghanistan PPS (President Protective Service) had collapsed.

“If I take a stand, they will all be killed.

“There couldn’t be a harder thing. I had to sacrifice myself in order to save Kabul and to expose the situation for what it is.”

The former Afghan president has been criticised for abandoning the country he led for seven years, as Afghanistan battles a humanitarian crisis that has worsened since August. The UN warned in October that nearly 23 million people in Afghanistan now face “acute food insecurity.”