Afghan baby cradled to sleep by British soldier

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The last month has been the hardest for Afghanistan. The Afghans were in a hurry to flee their country with the help of British soldiers as the Taliban took over. The Taliban declared that it was their country to rule. So, it is having a lot of rules according to them. Those who would not be able to follow the rules would be facing death. So the Afghans were in dire need to leave their own country.

The world saw one of the biggest human exoduses of the century. It was when the Afghan nationals were desperate to escape the Taliban rule. The Britishers helped a lot. They sent a lot of evacuation flights for the Afghans. With whatever little they had, the Afghan families moved to safer havens in these evacuation flights.

On 28th August, Britain’s last military flight left Kabul on Saturday. They evacuated more than 15,000 people in the two weeks since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan. This ended nearly 20 years of British military presence in the country. Britain’s Ministry of Defense said, “The final flight carrying UK Armed Forces personnel has left Kabul.” Defense Minister Ben Wallace said after the final British flight that they were proud of their armed forces for welcoming those who were coming for a better life and sad for those Afghans who were left behind at the mercy of the Taliban.

There were many heart-wrenching videos seen on social media. They highlighted the helplessness and anguish of the Afghans. Along with this, another emotional story has come to light. It is the story of how a Royal Air Force Sergeant cradled a two-week-old Afghan baby to sleep while its mother, who had not had any rest slept on a UK evacuation flight out of Kabul.

International news media covered this news. It was the story of a British soldier, Sergeant Andy Livingstone who was the father of two young girls. He spotted a family of five on the evacuation flight, one that comprised of the parents and three children. There had been a suicidal attack in Kabul which left several dead. The family had boarded the flight hours after that.

When asked to narrate the story during an interview, Sergeant Livingstone said, “You could see all of them were exhausted. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I see something drop on the floor and as I look over, bless her, this woman is picking hup her two-week-old child.” After this, he added, “At that point, the only thing I could do was plead with the family to let me take the baby for half an hour or however long they would let me, just so she could have enough sleep to gain a little bit more energy to hold her baby. For 40 minutes to an hour, I just stood there looking at a baby as I would if it were my own or one of my friend‘s.”

Livingstone held the baby the entire flight time left cradling it to sleep and handed the baby back to the mother once she had rested.

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