An Afghan girl’s pet bird has found a new home with France’s ambassador in Abu Dhabi. The girl was earlier evacuated from Kabul after the Taliban’s hostile takeover.

The girl was stopped from bringing the bird, named Juji, on a flight to France from the UAE, so Xavier Chatel took it in. 

Over 120,000 people were airlifted out of Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover on August 14. 

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“A girl arrived at Al Dhafra air base, exhausted, with an unusual possession: a bird. She had fought all the way at Kabul airport to bring the treasured little thing with her,” Mr Chatel wrote on Twitter.

“For sanitary reasons, the bird could not embark on the plane,” he added. “She cried silently. I was moved. I promised to take care of the bird at the residence, feed him. She could visit him anytime and take him back,” she continued. 

Mr Chatel took Juji out regularly so that it could meet other birds and learn to speak as well. Juji finally “loosened” and even started to “say mysterious things, in a language we couldn’t understand”.

“But the thing is: Juji doesn’t like men. He frowned at me and looked angrily, while he giggled at females. I went on trying hopelessly my daily bonjour – but sure enough he wouldn’t listen,” the ambassador told the BBC.

“…Or so I thought. Until one day, the (female) manager of the French residence sent me this bonjour that went straight to my heart.”

Mr Chatel said Alia, the bird’s owner, had been in constant contact from Paris and was “so happy to see her bird thus cared for”.

“Alia, your bird has become the embassy’s mascot, but he is here for you, and if I can, I’ll take him personally to you one day,” Mr Chatel said.