Middle East & Africa | Willing hosts

Uganda receives its first flight of evacuees from Afghanistan

The country has long welcomed refugees, but politics is also at play

|KAMPALA

NO SOONER HAD the Taliban marched into Kabul than politicians in Uganda, a mere 5,000km away, were readying for the arrival of evacuees from Afghanistan. “The world will look at Uganda as a reliable partner,” explained one cabinet minister. Another said that evacuees would bring business for local hotels. A third joked, grotesquely, about how Ugandan men were praying for the safe landing of beautiful Afghan women.

This article appeared in the Middle East & Africa section of the print edition under the headline “Willing hosts”

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