“I don’t wish any human being to go through what we’ve been through. It’s terrible, unimaginable,” Aimal Ahmad, 32, who has been living in a refugee camp in Qatar for a month, confides on the phone, hoping to find relief. to be evacuated to the United States.
On August 29, 2021, the father of the family lost his daughter, Malika, 3, his brother Ezmarai, who had worked for an American NGO, and several of his nephews and nieces. The ten family members, including seven children, were around or in the family car parked in the cramped patio of the house targeted by an American drone.
The day before the departure of the last American soldiers from Afghanistan, in a climate of immense confusion caused by the rapid seizure of power by the Taliban in Kabul, the family members will be the last civilian victims recorded.
The US military admitted a few days later that it had made a “tragic error” in thinking of targeting a vehicle loaded with explosives belonging to fighters from the Islamic State (IS) group.
She did not issue sanctions against the soldiers involved for lack of “sufficient solid elements to retain personal responsibilities”, but the American administration is currently helping family members to be evacuated, Mr. Ahmadi said.
The US military has admitted accidentally killing 188 civilians since 2018 in Afghanistan, according to official figures.
– Lusts –
A year later, the modest two-storey house, located in a narrow street in the Khwaja Bughra district in the north of the capital, is only inhabited by a dozen members of the distant family. Relatives of the victims preferred to flee the scene of the tragedy, which still bears the scars of the attack.
The windows blown out by the explosion were repaired, the walls of the courtyard rebuilt and others repainted. But on the floor, tiles are still missing where the drone hit. And the family’s second vehicle, almost completely burned by the explosion, is still lying in the middle of the yard under a tarpaulin.
“We didn’t want to get rid of it in memory of the victims and because it saved lives by protecting the women inside the house from shrapnel,” said 20-year-old nephew Nasratullah Malikzada. responsible for maintaining the house.
“Very sad”, the young Afghan is resigned: “It’s the will of God. What happened has happened, we can’t go back. God will punish those responsible in the hereafter”, confides he passed the gate, above which were hung the smiling portraits of the ten victims.
For the family, the path has been strewn with pitfalls. Aimal, who worked with foreign companies, lost his job and one of his brothers was threatened by strangers who wanted to attack his money.
The announcement by Washington of the payment of compensation to the family has aroused envy in a country in economic distress. But to date, the family has still not received any subsidy and has been assisted by a lawyer – who could not be reached – in order to defend their interests.
His voice exhausted, Aimal says he is confident in the promise made by the Americans to compensate them and aspires, as soon as he has his papers, to join his two brothers who are already in the United States. Her sister, ailing, left home for a safe place in Kabul, also hoping to be evacuated.
“I hope that a better future awaits me,” breathes the 30-year-old.
