Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani appears to be with his family in the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) capital of Abu Dhabi, the Gulf state’s foreign ministry said on Wednesday, adding that it welcomed the Afghan leader on humanitarian grounds, Daily Sabah reports.
“The UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation can confirm that the UAE has welcomed President Ashraf Ghani and his family into the country on humanitarian grounds,” it said in a statement.
CNN reported that in a Facebook video message shared on Wednesday, Ghani reiterated that he left the country to avoid bloodshed. He also wanted to prevent Afghanistan from becoming like Syria and Yemen, and avert “dreadful disaster” of “being hanged” had he remained in office.
“The decision was made that whatever happened 25 years ago would be repeated if I had stayed the President of Afghanistan. I would have been hanged in front of the eyes of the people of Afghanistan and this would have been a dreadful disaster in our history,” he said.
