With the withdrawal of international troops from Afghanistan the Islamist Taliban keep advancing and conquer numerous areas. The messages at a glance:
The number of internally displaced persons in Afghanistan has risen massively since the beginning of May. By the end of July, nearly a quarter of a million people in the country had left their villages and towns. The UN Agency for the Coordination of Humanitarian Aid (OCHA) put the number at more than 244,000 – more than four times as many as in the same period last year. Most of the internally displaced people fled the provinces in the northeast and east from armed fighting.
A total of about 37 million people live in Afghanistan. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimates that around 30,000 Afghans leave their country every week. The estimates are based on surveys of migrants and smugglers.
In view of the rising number of victims in Afghanistan, UN emergency aid coordinator Martin Griffiths called for the protection of the civilian population. In July alone, more than a thousand people were killed or injured in attacks in the conflict provinces of Helmand, Kandahar and Herat, he reported on Monday. “I am extremely concerned about the worsening situation,” Griffiths said in a statement from the UN Emergency Response Office in Geneva.
With the start of the official withdrawal of international troops on May 1, the militant Islamist Taliban launched several offensives. In the meantime they have conquered more than 160 of the 400 or so districts, several border crossings and parts of important highways. Since Friday, they have brought five provincial capitals under their control, including the city of Kunduz in the north. Now thousands of people are fleeing from there too. These figures are not yet included in the data from the UN agency.
Since the start of the withdrawal, the number of fatalities and injuries in the civilian population has also risen significantly. The UN warns that 2021 could be the year with the highest number of civilian casualties. (08/09/2021)
Kramp-Karrenbauer: “Reports from Kunduz and all over Afghanistan are bitter and hurt a lot”
Federal Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer regrets the latest developments in Afghanistan, but is critical of a new deployment of the Bundeswehr in the country. “The reports from Kunduz and from all over Afghanistan are bitter and hurt a lot”, the CDU politician tweeted on Monday. “The current situation in Afghanistan makes the question of ‘why’ even more pressing and goes hand in hand with the desire to stop the Taliban.”
The minister emphasized that the Bundeswehr had fulfilled all the orders given by the Bundestag in Afghanistan. It was achieved that the extremist group al-Qaeda posed no more danger from Afghanistan. In addition, an entire generation of Afghans has better opportunities. This applies above all to women and girls who now have access to education. “What we have apparently not achieved is a permanent and comprehensive change in Afghanistan for the better. We should learn from this for the goals of future missions abroad.”
Now it is about humanitarian aid for the country and the training and support for the development of “effective statehood”, said Kramp-Karrenbauer. The federal government must also take care of the so-called local staff, 1700 of whom are already in Germany. Anyone who wants a new deployment of the Bundeswehr has to ask whether German society and the Bundestag are ready “to go into a tough military conflict again in Afghanistan.”
From Kramp-Karrenbauer’s ministry it is said that it is “not recognizable” that there is a political majority in Germany for a new deployment of the Federal Armed Forces. “That is why I do not assume that a month after the withdrawal of the German forces we should think about going into a combat mission there again,” said Ministry spokesman Arne Collatz. (08/09/2021)
Again media representatives killed in Afghanistan
According to officials, alleged Taliban fighters killed the head of a radio station in Kabul. Tufan Omar was said to have been deliberately killed in the Afghan capital on Sunday. A local journalist was also kidnapped by the Taliban in the southern Helmand province. A Taliban spokesman said he had no information on either case.
Media representatives are repeatedly exposed to attacks in Afghanistan. According to the civil rights group NAI, of which the killed radio manager was a member, 30 journalists and media workers were killed, injured or abducted by militant groups this year alone. Several Afghan news outlets have urged the US to give refuge to Afghan media workers. (08/09/2021)
The federal government is criticized for its handling of local staff
In view of the dramatically deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan, criticism of the German government’s dealings with its Afghan aid workers is growing. Until the end of their deployment in the country, the Bundeswehr in particular had to rely on the support of so-called local staff, who now fear for their lives and that of their relatives due to the advance of the Taliban. Marcus Grotian, chairman of the sponsorship network of Afghan local workers threw the federal government in the Süddeutsche Zeitung suggested that her “moral compass has been completely lost”.
Two and a half weeks ago, Chancellor Angela Merkel promised more support for the local staff and, among other things, brought up charter flights to fly out helpers with their families. So far there has been no such flight. According to Grotian, the procedures for leaving the country are also dragging on. Those affected report to the SZ about a cat-and-mouse game that they experienced when they want to tackle their departure. As a rule, they still have to organize this themselves.
At the end of July, according to the Interior Ministry, 471 local employees and their relatives, a total of 2,851 people, had completed travel documents. Hundreds more people are waiting for it. As of last Thursday, 1,796 people had come to Germany, 296 of whom were former local employees.
The criticism is now also coming from the ranks of the government factions. The SPD politician Wolfgang Hellmich, chairman of the Defense Committee in the Bundestag, told the SZ: “What kind of crazy idea is that that the families are on their way, deal with the procedure and book the flights themselves? If I go to them When I look at the map, I see the Taliban encircling the cities. ” The entire procedure is too bureaucratic.
Opposition politician Agnieszka Brugger, Vice-President of the Greens, was also disappointed. “The federal government has failed to provide comprehensive, safe and quick help to all local workers in Afghanistan. Angela Merkel’s word of power has hardly changed anything about this ungrateful ignorance,” she told the SZ. (08/08/2021)