BEIJING (AFP) – Afghanistan’s ambassador to China left a colourful resignation note for his post-Taleban takeover successor yesterday – revealing that staff had not been paid for months and that a lone receptionist had been left to answer phones.
Javid Ahmad Qaem took to Twitter to detail how he had to scrape cash from the embassy’s bank account to pay staff after the Taleban seized Afghanistan last August.
“Since we did not receive salaries from Kabul for the last six months, we assigned a committee from within the diplomats to solve the financial issues,” Qaem wrote in a letter to Afghanistan’s Foreign Ministry dated January 1 but posted to social media yesterday.
Still, he left some funds for his successor.
“As of today, January 1, 2022, there is around USD100,000 left in the account.”
He did not say where he was going next.
In a portrait of a barely functioning embassy, Qaem’s letter revealed he had left the keys for the embassy’s five cars in his office and that a lone local hire had been assigned to answer queries after all the other diplomats left.
