China evacuates citizens from Afghanistan

BEIJING: China evacuated 210 nationals from Afghanistan as US troops stepped up their withdrawal from the war-torn nation, the airline that carried out the emergency chartered flight said.

A Xiamen Airlines flight departed the capital Kabul for the city of Wuhan, Hubei province, on July 2 carrying Chinese citizens who had been stranded in Afghanistan, it said in a Thursday social media post.

Among them were 22 people who were later confirmed to be infected with coronavirus, despite the airline taking “topnotch epidemic prevention measures” during the flight and upon landing, it added.

The Chinese foreign ministry confirmed that recent returnees included coronavirus patients and called on all nationals to leave Afghanistan, without revealing further specifics of the evacuation flight.

“In order to ensure the safety of Chinese citizens in Afghanistan, the Chinese government has reminded citizens in Afghanistan to leave the country as soon as possible and provided necessary assistance,” its consular affairs department said in a Wednesday social media post.

Chinese health authorities reported 25 new imported coronavirus cases in Hubei province, 22 of which were from the Kabul flight.

The flight was organised by the Chinese government, reported the state media tabloid Global Times.

Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi is set to discuss the deteriorating Afghan security situation with counterparts from Russia, India, Pakistan and numerous Central Asian countries at a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation next week.

The evacuation flight was hailed as a patriotic victory by Chinese social media users, with related trending hashtags gaining more than 300 million views on Weibo.