Ethnic Kazakhs, Kyrgyz nationals evacuated from Kabul onboard special flight - Kazakh Foreign Ministry

NUR-SULTAN. Sept 9 (Interfax) - A group of ethnic Kazakhs, several Kazakh and Kyrgyz nationals and one Afghan have been evacuated from Kabul to Kazakhstan's Almaty on a charter flight, the Kazakh Foreign Ministry press service said.

"On the behest of Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, a return of 35 ethnic Kazakhs, kandases [compatriots], from Afghanistan has been organized today," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

"A special flight of a Kazakh Defense Ministry's airplane has arrived in Almaty from Kabul with 41 passengers, including four Kazakh nationals, one Kyrgyz national and one Afghan permanently residing in Kazakhstan," it said.

"The evacuation flight was organized in coordination with the Taliban [terrorist group banned in Russia and in Kazakhstan]," it said.

The Kazakh embassy in Kabul is working "normally and in permanent contact with kandases living in Afghanistan," it said.

The effort to confirm the ethnicity of applicants and repatriate kandases is continuing, the Kazakh Foreign Ministry press service said.

The Kazakh president's press secretary Berik Uali wrote on social media that one UN worker was among people evacuated from Kabul onboard the flight. "The president thanks our diplomats and employees of all the agencies that participated in organizing the flight," Uali said.

On August 18, Kazakhstan evacuated 25 its own citizens and 16 nationals of Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Lithuania from Afghanistan. The United Nations Assistance Mission to Afghanistan and offices of some other international organizations have temporarily relocated from Kabul to Almaty.