“In Kabul, I was determined to go to the end” | EUROtoday

On Jun 29, 2025

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HASNucle of the antigang brigade gone to the safety of political figures, Commander Mohamed Bida was born in Algeria on 1^er January 1962, of a father harki, soldier within the French military on the time of the battle of independence. In 2016, he was chargeable for the safety of the French Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. Five years later, in August 2021, when the Taliban invaded the capital, he organized with ten raid cops and in coordination with the French ambassador, David Martinon, the exfiltration of some 5 hundred French and Afghans refugee within the constructing.

A excessive threat operation he advised within the ebook* 13 days, 13 nights. In Kabul’s helltailored to the cinema by Martin Bourboulon with Roschdy Zem in his double on the display screen. Meeting with a police officer who doesn’t take himself for “a hero”.

The level: With hindsight, what impressions do you retain of this dramatic episode?

Mohamed Bida: I feel now we have fulfilled our mission. When you bought on the aircraft after the Abbey Gate assault, which left 200 useless and 400 injured, it’s true that we had a sense of guilt. We had negotiated with the Taliban, by the Americans, a convoy of 400 individuals who had been on the gates of the airport on the time of the most important explosion. Obviously, the Taliban have dispersed everybody and so they went into nature. But afterwards, after we see the end result – in complete: 142 French and a couple of,630 exfiltrated Afghans -, we are saying that we did the utmost with our means within the very sophisticated context of the American martial legislation on the airport. We did not do what we wished.

Do you’ve gotten a selected reminiscence of this Sunday, August 15, while you be taught that American helicopters is not going to come to take you to the French Embassy?

Yes, this August 15, David Martinon, the French ambassador, leaves round noon becoming a member of the American embassy to be evacuated by helicopter on the airport. He is aware of that we, the police, should be adopted throughout the hour. We are nonetheless on website to recuperate the final French people who find themselves nonetheless in Kabul, quickly within the palms of the Taliban. At the top of the afternoon, you may see rotation helicopters to go and land within the American embassy. We are 80 individuals within the French Embassy and refugees are beginning to flock. And it’s when helicopters are shot that the whole lot has modified. No extra utilizing them for safety causes. Meanwhile, a tragedy is performed out earlier than our eyes. On our management cameras, we see the rising crowd, males, ladies with infants who crash on our portal. A second of panic that follows photographs, explosions, whose origin has by no means been decided. When I inform the ambassador, it’s apparent that we should convey these refugees, shelter them. Me, I understood immediately, I mentioned to myself: “Well, we’re going to get them in, but now, it will be out, it will be with everyone. »»

Where does the idea of transferring them by bus?

I understand that we will have to imagine a departure by convoy. I do not yet know that I will have to negotiate with the Taliban.

How did you keep morally during these 13 days and these 13 nights of anxiety, stress, decisions to be taken quickly because every minute counts?

I simply held because it is in the policeman’s DNA to accomplish his mission to protect people who are in distress. And in this case, that was the case. We welcomed them, we fed them, we stayed, we protected them. We had the opportunity, we were ten, to take our armored cars and leave by leaving everyone. It was simply impossible. I have not seen in any of them the desire to shirk. They went to the end of their commitment, because it is part of the spine of security forces in general, to go to the end of their mission. And afterwards, we are caught in a whirlwind facing unreal scenes, as I described in my book. At the airport, I saw all these agglutinated people against barbed wire, torn, bloody clothes. Some managed to extricate, reaching the door. The Americans let them go down to drops. I still hear this permanent clamor of the crowd, detonations. Total chaos.

What lessons do you learn from these episodes of apocalypse?

I understood that men are capable of cruelty, brutality, but also humanity, selflessness and dedication for their neighbor. This is what I noticed, especially when we were on the edge of the septic canal. We had American navies and British special forces whose mission was to repel the Afghans who were trying to grab them. The confrontation was sometimes very brutal. The more the days passed, the more the distress increased around us, the more I saw the armor split.

There is this photo when a girl falls into the water with her infant. I lean from the edge to try to recover them, and it is an American navy who holds me through the belt. What we have in front of us is unbearable. We fall for it because we are not machines. We are human beings of flesh and blood, and above all we have a heart. When we learned that there would be an attack by the canal, the order was given to everyone to withdraw except the navies, forced to stay to prevent the airport from being invaded. Review: 27 injured Americans and 13 dead in the Thursday 26 August attack. When we went to the canal, there was this young GI, full of dust, rocking an infant. There were also many abandoned or lost children. I remember the first images of dead navies. It bruised me deeply because I imagine their sacrifice. They stayed because it was their duty. The results of the Afghans are also terrible: 200 dead. And there we take the plane, we will go home, and they are dead.

You saved lives. Do you consider yourself a hero?

No. I only did my duty. I have in mind the Bataclan tragedy. Two police officials, including a commissioner, on patrol in Paris, arrive in front of the Bataclan, alerted by a shooting. They enter the room while there are five super -armed jihadists inside. They went there because it is their commitment. I am a little embarrassed when I am told that I am a hero when I see what my colleagues do in other situations. We saved lives, of course, but compared to other acts, I remain modest. Moreover, the officials who entered the Bataclan were not decorated. I think it’s a little embarrassing to speak of “heroes” because my colleagues and I have done things that seem obvious to us. I have no obligation of result, I have an obligation of means. In Kabul, I was determined to go to the end.

How was your meeting with Roschdy Zem, your double in the movies…

To uncover

The kangaroo of the day

Answer

He’s my favourite actor for a really very long time. He scanned me, requested me plenty of questions. I do know he mentioned to Martin Bourboulon: “You must disherory the character. He had ready his position for 2 months and, after our assembly, he understood that there is no such thing as a pleasure in my home, no will to cross for a hero.

*13 days, 13 nights. In Kabul’s hellby Mohamed Bida (ed. Denoël, 272 p., 20 euros); 13 days, 13 nightsindoors.

https://www.lepoint.fr/culture/mohamed-bida-a-kaboul-j-etais-determine-a-aller-jusqu-au-bout-29-06-2025-2593230_3.php