Afghan ex-president Ashraf Ghani has fled to the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
He left his country in a hurry last weekend when the radical Islamist Taliban movement took the capital Kabul, ending the reconquest of the country.
The UAE has welcomed Ghani and his family on humanitarian grounds, the Gulf State Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. Ghani is in Abu Dhabi.
Because the president fled, Afghan Vice President Amrullah Saleh claims he is now the legal leader of Afghanistan. As “legitimate interim president”, he calls on the population to join the “resistance”.
In messages on Twitter, he claims that he has stayed in Afghanistan.