U.S. official says 'dire conditions' at Qatar base housing Afghan evacuees 'are of our own doing' in leaked email

Afghanistan evacuation.
(Image credit: Airman 1st Class Kylie Barrow/U.S. Air Force via AP)

A leaked email written by Colin Sullivan, an official at U.S. Central Command, warns that a "humanitarian crisis" is unfolding at the U.S. air base in Qatar, Axios reports. The air base is temporarily housing Afghan evacuees who have left Kabul after the Taliban takeover last week.

The base is crowded and the Qatari summer temperatures are sweltering; Sullivan described the situation as a "living hell." The floors, he wrote in the email, are covered in "trash, urine, fecal matter, spilled liquids, and vomit."

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Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.