On Wednesday, the former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, who fled Kabul when Taliban forces reached the outskirts of the city last month, apologized for the abrupt fall of his government but denied the allegations that he had taken millions of dollars with him.
In a statement posted on his Twitter, Ghani said that he had left after his security team advised him that if he there, was a risk of “the same horrific street-to-street fighting the city had suffered during the Civil War of the 1990s.”
“Leaving Kabul was the most difficult decision of my life, but I believed it was the only way to keep the guns silent and save Kabul and her 6 million citizens,” he said.
Ghani, dismissed reports that he had left with millions of dollars in cash as “completely and categorically false.”
“Corruption is a plague that has crippled our country for decades and fighting corruption has been a central focus of my efforts as president,” he said, adding that he and his Lebanese-born wife were “scrupulous in our personal finances.”
In his statement, he offered appreciation for the sacrifices Afghans especially Afghan soldies and their families which they had made over the past 40 years of war in their country.
“It is with deep and profound regret that my own chapter ended in similar tragedy to my predecessors – without ensuring stability and prosperity. I apologise to the Afghan people that I could not make it end differently.”