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Irishwoman Aoife MacManus, who fled to Pakistan from Afghanistan earlier this week, has said she hopes to be back in Ireland early next week.
Speaking from Islamabad after her departure from Kabul on Wednesday, the Co Meath native said securing a seat on a flight had not been an issue, but getting to the airport had been a challenge.
She and her colleagues in the NGO where she worked in education effectively had a Taliban escort to get within walking distance of the gates, having passed through “thousands” of Afghans who were trying to reach the airport.
They saw other NGO and UN cars having to turn back. Their car did not get to them all the way to the gates so they had to walk some of the way, she said.
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“The Taliban didn’t bring us the whole way, nobody can drive in,” she told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland. “We managed to reach the gates somehow and the US Marines came out to meet us and brought us in.”
Ms MacManus said she did not feel in danger, but was always aware that at any moment “things could turn”.
The scene within the airport was “surreal” she said, with “several thousand people” standing and sitting around waiting for military flights to come in. “It was quite a scene, still hearing all the gunshots from outside,” Ms MacManus said. “We all slept out of exhaustion, but with one eye open.”
When her flight took off from Kabul airport, she said it was “a very strange and heavy feeling to think that so many colleagues and friends are there and won’t have the opportunity to leave any time soon. I was wondering what’s next for them.”
Her plan is to leave Pakistan on Sunday or Monday.
Ms MacManus said she has to stay positive and hopes “that things will settle”. Kabul had been calmer in recent days, she said, adding that she hoped that a middle ground could be reached where education and normal life could resume, albeit “maybe more conservative”.