'Grim' desperate and sad' scenes as mothers throw babies over fence at Kabul airport
19 August 2021, 07:30 | Updated: 19 August 2021, 22:14
Life in Kabul is 'grim and sad' journalist in Afghanistan tells LBC
Life in Kabul is 'grim and desperate' and mothers desperate to get their babies to safety are 'throwing them over barbed wire fences.'
Speaking to LBC's Nick Ferrari - Kim Sengupta the Defence and Diplomatic Editor at The Independent, explained life in Kabul.
"It's grim, it's desperate and it's very, very sad," the veteran journalist said as he reported live from the Afghan capital.
Read more: Desperate Afghan mothers fleeing Taliban 'throw babies over Kabul airport barbed wire'
Kim said he had never come across such a sense of "desolation or fear" as he was experiencing in the city now, citing his 24 previous visits.
"The scenes at the airport are chaotic and violent and frankly things are not going to get better."
Kim said there was a "choice point" at the entrance to the airport as thousands of Afghans desperately try to flee the Taliban.
"The scenes outside are absolute pandemonium."
Shockingly he revealed the night before last there were mothers who were unable to get past the Taliban who were "throwing their babies to the British soldiers."
"They were begging them to save their babies."
Read more: Taliban 'beat and whip' crowds as regime tightens grip on Afghanistan
Read more: 'We're not trained to lose': Veteran MPs condemn 'shameful' Afghanistan withdrawal
Huge crowds of people have been seen at Hamid Karzai International as they try to escape a future under the group.
Despite the Taliban's recent publicity drive, there are fears those who worked with the Afghan government face reprisals and that human rights, particularly for women, will be abused if the group implements a strict application of sharia law.
As international troops try to keep the airport secure while officials and Afghans are flown out, reports have emerged of women throwing their babies over the perimeter barbed wire, hoping British troops will take them out of the country.
Sky News was told by a senior officer: "It was terrible, women were throwing their babies over the razor wire, asking the soldiers to take them, some got caught in the wire.
"I'm worried for my men, I'm counselling some, everyone cried last night."
