Ballito man recounts harrowing escape as Afghanistan falls to the Taliban
The civilian side of the airport was being overrun as people attempted to flee the country.
Fears of the Taliban closing in, 5 days without sleep and aggressive locals were some of the horrors Ballito’s Dwayne Thompson faced as a close protection officer for Canadians in Afghanistan in the final days of evacuation.
A former soldier who served in the British army, Thompson spent the last 8 years in war-torn Afghanistan performing security duties. He arrived home at the weekend after the withdrawal of American and Western allies over recent weeks.
With reports of Taliban fighters closing in on the capital city, Kabul, the Canadian embassy was forced to abandon their offices.
Thompson and his team set about destroying all documents and escorting embassy staff to a safehouse while awaiting the arrival of a chartered plane at Hamid Karzai International Airport.
“After completing initial shutdown, we exfiltrated to Zohak village where we had a secure camp running,” he said.
It would however be 2 days before the Canadians would board a chartered plane, taking them to safety and out of Afghanistan.
Thompson and his team remained behind to complete the shutdown and assist with evacuations, all while the Taliban continued to close in.
They were then forced to move to another compound.
“Our options were running out fast with each day passing,” said Thompson.
The Canadians had now made it to safety, but additional forces needed to be evacuated.
The normal 10-minute drive to the airport became a 3-hour gauntlet, while their vehicles were being stoned.
The civilian side of the airport was being overrun as people attempted to flee the country, fears of a violent Taliban growing.
When Afghanistan president, Ashraf Ghani was ordered by the Taliban to surrender on August 12, he escaped to the United Arab Emirates.
On that day Thompson received reports that the Taliban were less than 5kms away.
Hopes were high that a chartered Canadian flight would take them to safety the next day, but this was cancelled and soon the Taliban arrived, going door to door.
“We were stuck and had nowhere to go,” said Thompson.
On Monday, August 16, they were surrounded.
“We were planning to flee, but had to do shuttle runs with the amount of people we had.”
They had no choice but to attempt to strike a deal.
“We ditched the military gear we had, including weapons and presented ourselves as civilians to the Taliban.”
Fearing the worst, they were surprised to be treated well by the Taliban fighters, who offered to escort them to the airport to be evacuated.
This after Thompson had decided to ‘play friendly’ with them, taking photos, handing out cigarettes and water.
“I believe they knew who we were. They asked us to tell them where we had left our weapons, and we did.”
“They told us that we had to leave and that the Taliban forces who would soon join them from Kandahar were not as forgiving as them.”
Thompson landed safely in the United Kingdom on August 18 and after 5 days of no sleep he said he could finally unwind, and even crack open a beer.
“It was a bitter-sweet moment leaving. I enjoyed working there, otherwise I’d have never kept doing the job. It felt like we were leaving Afghans behind who were trying to escape.”
Thompson landed at King Shaka International Airport last Saturday where his wife Sam, daughter Ella-Mae and son, Brody were waiting for him with a ‘Welcome home, Dad’ poster.
Thompson said that he was glad to finally be home with his family.
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