KUNDUZ, Afghanistan—Two months after the Taliban rampaged through the northern Afghan city of Kunduz, residents are still sifting through the rubble, wondering how they will ever rebuild and worrying that the insurgents will return.
The Taliban swept into the strategic northern city in late September, holding it for three days and looting and destroying shops before being driven out by a massive counteroffensive backed by U.S. airstrikes.
The street by street fighting devastated wide swaths of Kunduz at a time when Afghanistan’s finances are stretched thin by a seemingly never-ending war. International aid is being scaled down alongside the withdrawal of most foreign troops, who officially concluded their combat mission last year.
The Taliban are meanwhile dug in on the city’s outskirts, and many fear they could return.
“I lost everything I had — my house, my business and my property,” said Ahmad Jan, who sold TVs and DVDs in Kunduz. The Taliban torched his shop, and then his home was demolished during the battle to drive them out, he said. He moved his family to a neighboring province for safety.
“I can’t trust the government anymore, I have lost my hope in them,” he said.
During a visit to Kunduz last week, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said the government would protect the city and help residents rebuild. “We won’t allow a repeat of what happened to Kunduz,” he said, as rocket-fire rumbled off in the distance, where near-daily battles have erupted just outside the city.
Ghani has ordered the dismissal and military trial of an undisclosed number of intelligence officials, including the provincial intelligence chief, over the failure to anticipate September’s attack, which was the latest in a series of attacks on the city. He has also ordered a security review by the newly appointed army division commander.
But many residents said they remain fearful, especially after seeing the Taliban make off with armored vehicles and tanks.
As winter sets in, local officials and residents are taking stock of the devastation wrought by the fighting. The damage to public infrastructure alone has been estimated at around $82 million, according to Hamdullah Danishi, the acting governor of Kunduz province.
He said the damage to private property is still being assessed. “It could be that the cost of rebuilding privately owned properties will be several times that of the public infrastructure because they took the brunt of the fighting over several days,” he added.
