A new French flight carrying evacuees from Afghanistan left Kabul overnight for Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, witnesses at the airport were told.
The day before, 41 French and foreign nationals had already been exfiltrated from Kabul by France, thanks to the airlift set up by Paris after the takeover by the Taliban on Sunday.
Screening tests on arrival
These people had arrived around 5:30 p.m. (3:30 p.m. GMT) on the tarmac of the Parisian airport of Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle, in a French army A310 in blue white red colors, after having made a stopover in Abu Dhabi . This plane was also carrying around sixty French soldiers returning from foreign operations, a source at the Ministry of the Armed Forces said. All passengers were required to pass Covid-19 tests and undergo health checks upon arrival.
Other rotations are planned in the coming hours and days to evacuate all French nationals. The authorities refuse to indicate at this stage how many people in total France will exfiltrate as part of this operation called Apagan. It mobilizes two Air Force planes on the Emirates-Kabul section and two others for flights between the Emirates and France.