After the withdrawal of international troops from Afghanistan, the Islamist Taliban took power in the country – and are redesigning it according to their ideas. The most important developments in the news blog.
In a rare step, the US government activates the civil air reserve and obliges commercial airlines to support the rescue mission. The Pentagon announced that 18 aircraft from six US airlines were affected by the order. These machines should not go to the airport in Kabul, but rather be used for onward transport from intermediate stations. This would relieve the capacities of military aircraft that could be used for the airlift to and from Kabul.
The US first flies Afghans seeking protection to other countries before they can travel on to the United States. The transit countries include, for example, Germany and Qatar. The Pentagon announced on Saturday that US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin “greatly appreciates the support of our industrial partners in this important task.” The 18 aircraft intended for use came from the fleets of American Airlines, Atlas Air, Delta Air Lines, Omni Air, Hawaiian Airlines and United Airlines.
It is unclear how many Americans and Afghan supporters of the US operation the US government will have to bring to safety. US President Joe Biden last spoke of around 50,000 to 65,000 aid workers, including their families. According to the Pentagon on Saturday, the US armed forces flown around 17,000 people from Kabul within a week.
The civil air reserve (CRAF) was created in 1952 after the Berlin Airlift. During the Soviet blockade of Berlin from June 24th, 1948 to May 12th, 1949, the Western Allies brought relief supplies to the western part of Berlin, which was sealed off from the outside world. At that time, the Americans, British and French supplied more than two million Berliners with almost 280,000 flights and sent food and coal, among other things. According to the Pentagon, the reserve was only activated twice, each time during the Iraq wars in the early 1990s and 2000s. (08/22/2021)
20 dead in a crowd at Kabul airport
In Kabul, at least 20 people have died in the crowd around the airport in the past seven days. This figure was reported by a NATO representative to the Reuters news agency. “Our focus is evacuating all foreigners as quickly as possible,” he said. The British government had previously reported seven deaths. “Our thoughts go with the families of seven Afghan civilians who tragically died in the crowd in Kabul,” said a statement from the Defense Ministry on Sunday.
Also a correspondent for the British broadcaster Sky News had reported deaths at the gates of the airport. According to the correspondent Stuart Ramsay, who reportedly observed the scene on site, chaos broke out on Saturday morning among the people who were waiting to get onto the premises and catch one of the flights.
Several were “squeezed” in the crowd, the reporter reported. Soldiers and rescue workers were busy looking after the dehydrated, desperate men, women and children. For some, however, every rescue came too late: Ramsay described how corpses were wrapped in white towels after paramedics could no longer detect any signs of life in the people. How many people died and what the exact cause of death was initially remained unclear.
Since the Taliban came to power in Afghanistan, numerous Afghans and foreign citizens have tried every day to gain access to the capital’s airport in order to escape the country on one of the flights. The German and American embassies in Kabul advised their citizens against attempts to reach the airport on Saturday.
In the meantime, the airport has calmed down a bit. Eyewitnesses report that the Taliban established a kind of order around the airport. They prevented people from gathering around the area and ensured proper queues outside the airport gates. There have long been queues on early Sunday mornings, but no confusion or violence. According to statements by NATO officials and the Taliban, 12 people have been shot or trampled to death at the airport since last Sunday. (08/22/2021)
Aid organizations continue their work on site
Most humanitarian workers in Afghanistan continue to work. As the World on sunday citing the UN Information Office in Geneva, all United Nations (UN) organizations – such as the UNHCR refugee agency and Welthungerhilfe – remain on site with the majority of their 300 foreign and around 3,000 local employees.
The UN office in Kabul stated that most of the more than 150 non-governmental aid organizations with several thousand employees will also continue to operate in Afghanistan. “In many provinces we have been asked by the Taliban to stay and continue our proven successful work for children,” the children’s aid organization Unicef is quoted as saying. (08/22/2021)
Austria does not want to accept any more refugees from Afghanistan
Austria’s Chancellor Sebastian Kurz is against the admission of refugees from Afghanistan in his country. That will not happen during his tenure, he tells the TV broadcaster Pulse 24. Austria had already made a disproportionately large contribution to the reception of refugees from Afghanistan.
The European Commission had previously called on the EU countries to prepare for possible refugee movements from Afghanistan. “We shouldn’t make the same mistakes as we did in 2015. We shouldn’t wait until people are at the EU’s external borders,” said EU Interior Commissioner Ylva Johansson World on sunday according to a preliminary report. One must support the Afghans within the country and in the neighboring countries of the region. The Swedish politician calls on all EU countries to increase their quotas for resettlement of refugees within the UNHCR program: “The EU Commission is ready to coordinate such programs and provide additional financial aid.” According to Development Minister Gerd Müller (CSU), a potential of 1,800 local workers and their families are entitled to leave the country in the area of development cooperation according to the criteria set by the federal government. The minister told the newspapers of the Funke media group.
According to statistics from the UN refugee agency UNHCR, Austria counts more than 40,000 Afghan refugees. This is the second highest number in Europe after Germany with 148,000. According to interview excerpts published in advance, Kurz calls for people fleeing Afghanistan to stay in the region. So far, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan have only accepted very few.
Meanwhile, Spain is providing two military bases in the south of the country for the initial reception of Afghans who have worked for the US government. The US President Joe Biden and the Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez agreed in a telephone call, as the government in Madrid announced. The Afghans are then to be brought from the bases to other countries. (08/22/2021)
Kramp-Karrenbauer admits that the government has made serious mistakes
Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (CDU) admitted serious mistakes in the reaction of the German government to the advance of the Taliban in Afghanistan and blamed former US President Donald Trump for the current situation.
The minister exercised self-criticism in a kind of balance sheet of the past few days, from which the mirrors quoted: “Our assessment of the situation was wrong, our assumption about the capabilities and willingness of the Afghan resistance to the Taliban was too optimistic,” wrote Kramp-Karrenbauer accordingly. In the letter, the Christian Democrat admitted that Germany, but also NATO, had misjudged the combat strength of the Afghan army. Despite the almost complete withdrawal of troops, it was assumed that the Afghan security forces would “be able to withstand the pressure of the Taliban – at least in the urban areas and especially in the capital.” The assumption turned out to be wrong within a few days. “This means that the worst-case scenario occurred much earlier than expected,” wrote Kramp-Karrenbauer.
Kramp-Karrebauer gives the former US President Trump part of the blame for the rapid downward spiral. Accordingly, when talks for an agreement between the Afghan government and the Taliban started, the hope grew “that the road to peace would be long but feasible”. The fact that Trump approved a deal in which the “largely unconditional withdrawal of the American armed forces” was sealed “changed the situation decisively”. (08/21/2021)