Status: 08/28/2021 4:10 p.m.
More and more states are ending their evacuation flights from Afghanistan. Britain has started withdrawing its soldiers. Italy claims to have flown out more Afghan citizens than any other EU country.
After Germany, other countries have ended their evacuation missions in Afghanistan. According to its own information, Italy flew more threatened Afghan citizens from Kabul than any other EU member state. With the arrival of 58 evacuees on board the last rescue flight in the morning, the country has brought around 4,900 Afghans out of the country in the past few weeks, said Foreign Minister Luigi di Maio. The last diplomatic representatives and security forces were also on board the plane.
After the end of the airlift, Italy will continue to seek quick exit opportunities for threatened local workers from the crisis country, promised di Maio. He did not say how many Afghans with a right to evacuation could not be flown out. Alongside the USA, Turkey, Great Britain and Germany, Italy was one of the five countries that were most heavily involved in NATO’s “Resolute Support” mission to train and support the Afghan security forces.
Britain begins withdrawing soldiers
Great Britain also ended the evacuation flights especially for civilians today, as the Ministry of Defense announced. The last flight left Kabul. However, flights for British military personnel would continue at the weekend, on which a small number of Afghans would also be taken.
In the morning, a Royal Air Force aircraft with soldiers on board landed at Brize Norton Air Force Base, northwest of London. They are part of a contingent of 1,000 men and women who were stationed in Kabul and who supported the evacuation operation. The Afghans who stayed behind and were waiting to be evacuated would not be forgotten, said British Ambassador Laurie Bristow. “We will continue to do everything we can to help them.”
According to its own statements, Great Britain flew more than 14,500 people from Kabul in the past two weeks. Up to 1,000 Afghans entitled to come to Britain should have been left behind. France also ended its evacuation mission on Friday. Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and Defense Minister Florence Parly said that almost 3,000 people were flown out as part of the action.
Amnesty calls for more rescue flights
The Bundeswehr’s last evacuation flight left Kabul on Thursday shortly after the devastating attack at the airport. The Bundeswehr soldiers involved in the rescue operation landed at the Wunstorf air force base near Hanover yesterday evening. The Air Force had flown 5,347 people from Kabul since August 16, including more than 4,000 Afghans.
Meanwhile, the Secretary General of Amnesty International in Germany, Markus N. Beeko, called for more rescue flights from the region around Afghanistan and easier visa issuance. “We expect the federal government and other states to continue to fly the evacuated people, some of whom have been severely traumatized, quickly out of the region,” he told the Düsseldorf “Rheinische Post”. Care must be taken that families are not torn apart. An unbureaucratic approach is required here.
Drone attack after terrorist attack
Even today, thousands of people were waiting in front of the airport in Kabul for an opportunity to leave the country. According to US data, a total of more than 110,000 people have now been flown out.
Less than two days after the terrorist attack, which left numerous deaths at the airport, the US military ruled with a retaliatory attack and attacked a local branch of the IS terrorist militia. The US central command Centcom announced that the unmanned air strike in the Afghan province of Nangahar was aimed at “a planner” of the group. According to the first signs, “the target was killed”.