DENVER (KDVR) — The holiday is no time off for lots of service members, including those who are retired.
One Denver retired Army veteran told FOX31 in addition to facing death threats, his friends still in Afghanistan are now going hungry.
“It’s frustrating man,” Angel Guma, retired Army specialist said. “I talk to Afghans every day.”
In August, Guma began working to get his friends any help to escape danger in Afghanistan.
Now, his friends, some of whom worked with U.S. forces, are starving, and some going without a meal for days.
One friend texted him a photo of his last meal.
“Which was basically just a piece of bread, and some water, that’s it,” Guma said.
The options for his friends still in that country are dwindling.
Guma said they’re begging for money to buy food for their family while also fleeing from Taliban hunters.
“I hate to be the one that’s making refugees around the world by encouraging them to leave Afghanistan, but by golly, if they stay there, they have no hope,” Guma said.
The United Nations reports more than 2 million Afghan refugees are around the world right now.
“A lot of them become refugees and then I never hear from them again,” Guma said. He said he assumes they have no way to contact him or that they’ve been killed.
Guma’s mission has become offering any support he can muster, even if it’s accountability for the country he served.
“My American duty at the end of the day is to be the one answerable to them when they’re asking questions,” Guma said.
Below are organizations providing aid to Afghan refugees:
International Rescue Committee
Doctors without Borders
Open Doors