Advance of the Taliban: Germany brings embassy staff back


Status: 08/13/2021 5:21 p.m.

Day by day the situation in Afghanistan is becoming more dangerous and the Taliban are advancing rapidly. That is why Germany is now bringing back many embassy employees. The UN is warning of a “humanitarian catastrophe”.

The militant Islamist Taliban are advancing at great speed on the Afghan capital Kabul. Most recently, the fighters conquered Kandahar, the second largest city in the country. Other important places are now also under the control of the Taliban.

Out of concern for the employees in the embassy, ​​Germany will now reduce its staff to the “absolute minimum”. Foreign Minister Heiko Maas announced this. The decisions were taken by the federal government’s crisis team, which met on Friday in view of the dramatic situation in Afghanistan.

USA sends 3,000 soldiers to Kabul to protect embassy staff

Oliver Mayer, ARD New Delhi, daily news 4:00 p.m., 13.8.2021

Charter flights are preferred

According to Maas, a support team will also be sent to the Afghan capital immediately. The embassy staff would be flown out with charter planes. This would also bring Afghan local staff who used to work for the Bundeswehr or federal ministries or who still work for them to Germany.

Two charter flights were originally planned for this by the end of the month. These would now be preferred, said Maas. He called on all Germans to leave the country immediately. A high double-digit number of German citizens are still in the country. Despite the impending danger, many aid organization employees want to stay on site. “I will stay here as long as that is possible in any way,” said Stefan Recker from Caritas International Kabul Deutschlandfunk. He also wanted to set an example that not all foreigners left.

A spokesman for the Federal Ministry of Defense did not rule out that Bundeswehr soldiers could also be used to secure a return campaign for German citizens. The Bundeswehr has forces ready “if the worst comes to the worst,” he said. Should it actually come to that, a new Bundestag mandate would be necessary: ​​”If armed confrontations with opposing forces are to be expected – ‘qualified’ are to be expected according to the wording of the Federal Constitutional Court – parliament is to be involved,” said Defense Minister Annegret’s spokesman Kramp-Karrenbauer.

The fact that the Bundeswehr will again be relocated to the Hindu Kush on a large scale in view of the desperate situation is as good as impossible. Kramp-Karrenbauer warned that one would then have to deal with a combat mission with a “war mission”.

British call US trigger a “mistake”

With the return campaign, Germany is following the example of the USA. The country had already announced on Thursday that it would reduce its embassy staff and send around 3,000 additional soldiers to the airport in Kabul.

Great Britain also wants to get its compatriots and Afghan interpreters out of the country quickly. To make this possible, 600 soldiers will be sent to Afghanistan, said British Defense Minister Ben Wallace. He described the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan as a “mistake”. Wallace told Sky News that the international community would “probably have to bear the consequences” for this withdrawal agreed in the Doha Agreement. The Al-Qaeda terrorist network will “probably” return to Afghanistan and “pose a threat to us and our interests”.

UN warn of “humanitarian catastrophe”

Given the advance of the Taliban, the situation of the people in Afghanistan is becoming increasingly desperate, according to the United Nations. “We are on the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe,” said a spokeswoman for the UN refugee agency UNHCR. Women and children in particular are fleeing the advancing Taliban.

In a short time, the Taliban have brought 18 of the 34 provincial capitals under their control. Recently, US intelligence services had not ruled out the possibility that the extremists could isolate Kabul within 30 days and take over within 90 days, given the rapid successes. Many months were originally estimated for such a scenario.

The Afghanistan expert Thomas Ruttig from the Kabul think tank Afghanistan Analysts Network says the government forces turned out to be “even less resilient than expected” after the fall of the major cities of Kandahar, Herat and Gasni. The early withdrawal of western troops was an important factor in this, as it had further undermined the morale of the soldiers and police officers. Germany also contributed to this with its withdrawal of the Bundeswehr from Mazar-i-Sharif at night. It is questionable whether the Taliban could be stopped again outside Kabul.

Army outnumbered

It is estimated that there are around 300,000 security guards and 60,000 Taliban fighters. The Afghan army is also better equipped.

It is unclear why the army, despite its numerical superiority, will be defeated so quickly by the Taliban. Apparently some soldiers surrendered without a fight for fear of the revenge of the Islamists. The Taliban benefit from the brutal reputation they earned during their reign of terror in the 1990s with public executions or flogging.

With information from Kai Küstner, ARD capital studio



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