Author: Kerkula Blama

A powerful 7.2-magnitude earthquake rocked the western part of Haiti on Saturday, August 14, leaving nearly 230 people dead, hundreds more injured or missing, and causing enormous damage. The earthquake which struck the country’s southwest at 8.29am local time, was felt across the Caribbean and rekindled painful memories of the devastating 2010 quake that killed more than 200,000 people. The prime minister, Ariel Henry, has declared a month-long state of emergency. The death toll jumped from 29 to 227, according to Haiti\’s Office of Civil Protection. Jerry Chandler, the agency\’s director, said teams will be sent to the area for…

A British student who claimed he was stuck in Kabul after going on holiday to Afghanistan \’because it was dangerous\’ has been \’evacuated\’. Miles Routledge, 21, said he had been abandoned by the British Embassy in the Afghan capital and was hiding in a United Nations safe house following several failed attempts to escape the city. Mr. Routlege, rom Birmingham had visited the country thinking it\’ll be safe to visit because the country would not fall to the Taliban for several months. But on Sunday, August 15, Taliban troops rolled into the capital, seizing power as president Ashraf Ghani ran…

The Taliban on Tuesday, August 17, declared an \”amnesty\” across Afghanistan and urged women to join its government. The announcement was made by Enamullah Samangani, a member of the Taliban’s cultural commission. It represents the first comments on governance from a federal level across the country after the Taliban took over. This is seen as an attempt to calm nerves across the capital that only the day before saw chaos at its airport as people tried to flee their rule. Since the Taliban overthrew the government, many residents have stayed home and remain fearful after the insurgents\’ takeover saw prisons emptied and armories…

One of Afghanistan\’s first female mayors has said that she is waiting for the Taliban to come and kill her as the Islamic militants took over the government. Zarifa Ghafari, the mayor of Maidan Shar, told British newspaper inews: \”I\’m sitting here waiting for them to come. There is no one to help me or my family. I\’m just sitting with them and my husband. And they will come for people like me and kill me. I can\’t leave my family. And anyway, where would I go?\” Ghafari, 27, is Afghanistan\’s youngest mayor and the first woman to hold the…

A Las Vegas flight attendant has died following a month-long battle with COVID-19 despite being fully vaccinated. Maurice Reginald “Reggie” Shepperson, 36, a Southwest Airlines flight attendant died last week after having tested positive for the virus in early July, KDFW reported. “It shows how quick life can change,” Dawn Shepperson-Bernard, Reggie Shepperson’s mother, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “How you can build a life for yourself, and how quickly your life can just be taken away. Everything that you worked for, so hard, it can just basically be left in ruins, your family left in ruins.” Shepperson-Bernard confirmed to…

A photo which shows inside a US military aircraft evacuating Afghans from Kabul to Qatar has viral online. Since Afghanistan collapsed to the Taliban, Kabul residents have been desperately looking for a way out of the capital either by road or by air.

A CNN reporter, Clarissa Ward, was forced to wear hijab while reporting for the news channel on Monday August 16, after the fall of Afghanistan\’s capital, Kabul, to the Taliban. Photos of Clarissa before and after the capture of the city have gone viral as online users are shocked by the quick turn of events. See more photos of Clarissa below…

US President, Joe Biden, has said he does not regret his decision to withdraw American forces from Afghanistan. He acknowledged that Afghanistan\’s collapse to the Taliban came much sooner than U.S. officials had anticipated but he blamed Afghanistan\’s elected leaders and military for not putting up more of a fight against the Taliban. Biden said on Monday, August 16, from the White House: \”I stand squarely behind my decision. The truth is this did unfold more quickly than we had anticipated.\” Biden blamed his predecessor, former President Donald Trump, arguing that his administration\’s hands were tied by the plan Trump set…

A photo from the city of Kabul, Afghanistan, shows images of women at a Kabul beauty salon being painted over as the Taliban took over the city. The photo was shared on Twitter by Lotfullah Najafizada, the head of the Afghan news outlet ToloNews TV. There was no official confirmation as to why the images of the women were covered up, but it is likely that it was done so to appease the Taliban. The Taliban stormed Kabul on Sunday, August 15, taking over most of the country, and seized control of the presidential palace. This put the terrorist group…

The British Embassy in Kabul has blocked the visas of 35 Afghan students who were offered scholarships to study in the UK as the Taliban sweeps across their nation. The Afghans had been selected among thousands of applicants for the prestigious Chevening scholarship, a UK grant which offers students from across the world the chance to study at UK universitie. But, after a year-long application process, the students were told that the UK Foreign Office had decided with \’deep regret\’ to pause this year\’s Chevening scholarship in Afghanistan. The embassy letter, which was shared by former UK politician Rory Stewart…