Tajikistan is preparing to receive up to 100,000 refugees from Afghanistan where violence has increased as international troops are leaving, a senior Tajik official said on Friday as quoted by Reuters.
This comes as Taliban is capturing more and more territory, which the Pentagon estimates now extends to over half of Afghanistan’s district centers.
Quoted by Reuters, Imomali Ibrohimzoda, deputy head of Tajikistan’s emergencies committee, on Friday said his country is already building two large warehouses to store supplies for refugees in the Khatlon and Gorno-Badakhshan provinces adjacent to the border.
According to Reuters report, a few hundred Afghan civilians fled to Tajikistan this month, but the Dushanbe government says they have already returned to Afghanistan.
This comes as Russia has sent its forces and equipment to border areas between Afghanistan and Tajikistan amidst an increase in insecurity in northern Afghanistan.