Status: 08/16/2021 8:44 a.m.
The first Bundeswehr machine is on its way to Afghanistan to bring Germans and local staff to safety after the Taliban came to power. 40 employees of the German embassy in Kabul have already been taken out of the country with a US machine.
The Bundeswehr set out on its first transport plane for Afghanistan to rescue German citizens and Afghan local staff. At the Lower Saxony air base in Wunstorf, an A400M aircraft started with German soldiers on board to secure the evacuation.
The paratroopers of the Rapid Forces Division are specially trained for such missions. German military police (“Feldjäger”) and Bundeswehr medic are also involved.
40 employees flown to Qatar
According to information from the dpa news agency, 40 employees of the German embassy landed in a US plane in Doha in the Gulf emirate of Qatar that night. Four members of the Swiss representation in Afghanistan were also on board the machine.
Yesterday all employees of the German embassy and other state representations were brought to the airport, which is secured by thousands of US soldiers.
First destination Tashkent
The rescue operation continues with several A400M machines. The aircraft, which have space for 114 passengers and have special protection against attacks, for example with rockets, will initially fly the victims to Tashkent in neighboring Uzbekistan. From there it goes on to Germany with civilian machines.
It’s about thousands of local employees
The total number of German citizens who were still in Kabul by Sunday was estimated at more than 100. It is unclear how many local workers are involved. In state development aid alone, 1,100 Afghans were most recently active on behalf of Germany. There are also thousands of former local members of the armed forces or the federal ministries.
It is probably the Bundeswehr’s largest evacuation mission to date – and a particularly explosive one. “One thing is certain: It is a dangerous mission for our soldiers,” wrote the Ministry of Defense on Twitter on Monday.
Crisis support teams on site
According to information from security circles, a so-called crisis support team made up of experts from various ministries is on the way to Kabul. In the Uzbek capital Tashkent, a second team is to organize a hub for rescuing people from the Islamists.
According to Federal Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, an “operational core team” from the embassy in Kabul will remain at the militarily secured part of the airport in order to keep the embassy in working order and to accompany the further evacuation measures.
Sharp criticism of the process
There is massive criticism from the opposition about the pace of the evacuation. The FDP external expert Alexander Graf Lambsdorff told the “world” that Maas, Federal Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer and Interior Minister Horst Seehofer had “failed all along the line”.
The campaign also started too late for the Greens parliamentary group leader Anton Hofreiter. “You have to ask yourself why the federal government seems so surprised by the Taliban’s rapid advance,” he told the dpa news agency.
Omid Nouripour, foreign policy spokesman for Bündnis90 / Die Grünen, with criticism of the government regarding the Afghanistan conflict
Morning magazine, August 16, 2021
The Greens’ foreign affairs spokesman, Omid Nouripour, told im ARD-Morgenmagazin: “The federal government has had time for years to make a plan for this moment. And this plan failed to materialize. The federal government has failed.”
The parliamentary group leader of the Left Party in the Bundestag, Jan Korte, called the actions of Maas in particular “scandalous”. Korte accused the Foreign Minister of endangering human life.
AfD parliamentary group leader Alexander Gauland criticized in the “Welt” that the federal government had “overslept” at the right time for the evacuation.
Mützenich defends Maas
The SPD parliamentary group leader in the Bundestag, Rolf Mützenich, had already rejected allegations against Maas on Sunday. “Heiko Maas not only heads the task force for rescuing German nationals and embassy staff, but has also taken care of the departure of Afghan local staff and other people who are active on site beyond the support of the Bundeswehr in the last few weeks.” He is also in constant contact with international partners.