Before the kidnapping of three UN workers last month, Afghanistan's capital was beginning to build a reputation as a party town, but everything has changed in recent weeks.
Even after the jubilation at the release on Tuesday of the trio who were held hostage for nearly a month, Kabul remains a city gripped by security jitters and the whiff of hedonism which was discernible during the summer has faded.
"Over the summer I went to better parties here than I ever went to in London, but now I can't even walk on the street because of our security guidelines," said one young aid worker.
Before the Afghanistan's Oct. 9 elections, a burgeoning restaurant scene had emerged, fed by international aid dollars. Huge parties were held weekly in the gardens of aid agency guesthouses full of young professionals working hard and playing even harder.
New restaurants sprang up across the city offering Thai, Indian, Croatian or Chinese food and the piece de resistance -- a French restaurant that boasted a garden full of pomegranate trees and its own swimming pool.
Now, many of the restaurants are half empty because the UN staff are living under a curfew and many other foreign aid workers have to follow similarly strict rules.
"There never was really any semblance of security in this city, and now the militants have proved themselves with ambushes right in the heart of the military zone, an audacious kidnapping," said Nick Downie, of the Afghan NGOs Security Office (ANSO).
Annetta Flanigan, Shqipe Hebibi and Angelito Nayan were seized at gunpoint from heavy lunchtime traffic in Kabul on Oct. 28.
A week earlier a suicide bomb killed an American woman, a young Afghan girl and the bomber himself in Chicken Street -- an area that was once a mecca for 1970s backpackers -- shattering the fragile sense of security which had surrounded the foreign community.
"I think the honeymoon is over, and people are starting to realize what the marriage is really like warts and all are appearing now," Downie said.
Thursday night in Kabul used to be party night, as Friday is the Islamic day of rest, but a suicide bomb threat against restaurants and bars frequented by foreigners has left many people wary of going to crowded places.
A leaving party for Dominic Medley, long-time Kabul resident and author of the Brandt Kabul Miniguide was called off after the bomb threat last Thursday and diners were ushered out of the popular Elbow Room restaurant, where the party was being held, before they had finished eating.
"It was really scary. It's one thing to get these security reports on e-mail, and it's another thing to be ushered out of restaurant because of a bomb threat," said Lana Slezic, a Kabul-based photographer who was at the restaurant at the time.
With many UN staff and other aid workers barred from leaving their residences after 7:00pm, some people are talking about terminating their contracts.
"I won't renew my contract next year because I have to shuttle from work to home and back and I can't even go to a restaurant," said one aid worker who has been in Afghanistan almost two years and worked in conflict zones around the world.
For adventurous types who came to Afghanistan to explore and help the war-torn country back to its feet, the current security guidelines are hard to swallow.
"Cabin fever has truly set in. We are starting to feel like caged animals. When it happened initially I think people were very scared but now it's a real sense of frustration," said one UN worker.
"You always feel it, you are always watching your back, looking behind you when you are travelling in a car and keeping the doors locked. People are much more vigilant," the UN worker said.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in