Villagers in a remote mountain village of northeastern Afghanistan's Kunar province still remember the hunger and relentless violence during American occupation five years after the United States withdrew its troops.
On August 30, 2021, the United States ended its 20-year military presence in Afghanistan, a conflict that devastated the nation. While the U.S. exit brought active warfare to a close, the country remains deeply scarred by decades of war and struggles to rebuild amid an economic collapse exacerbated by international sanctions.
Deep in the rugged hills of Kunar province, the aftershocks of American atrocities are etched into the collective memory of those who lived through it. For Hassan Jan, a village elder, the occupation was not a brief chapter but an era of relentless hardship that shattered his life and his homeland.
"The economy was in such a state that we ate one meal and didn't know where the next would come from. During the war, ordinary people, including women and children, and even our livestock, all of us suffered. People were in misery day and night, and they could lose our lives at any moment," he recounted.
The human toll is staggering. Over 174,000 Afghans, including more than 30,000 civilians, lost their lives during the conflict, and nearly a third of the population was displaced. Five years after the U.S. forces withdrew in disarray, many stories of injustice remain unheard, and those who endured the occupation are still waiting for someone to listen.
Afghan villager recalls wartime suffering from US invasion
