Emmanuel Macron will speak at 8 p.m. on Monday about the situation in Afghanistan, the Elysee said Sunday evening, while President Ashraf Ghani fled the country, effectively leaving power to the Taliban who reached Kabul.
A Defense Council relating to the situation in Afghanistan will also be held this Monday, at 12 noon by videoconference, the Elysee said on Sunday.
“Ensuring the safety of the French”
France is currently “doing everything possible to ensure the safety of the French” still in Afghanistan, and Emmanuel Macron “follows hour by hour the very worrying deterioration of the situation”, had already explained the French presidency, while the Taliban are at the gates from Kabul.
Sunday, France announced the deployment of military reinforcements in the United Arab Emirates to facilitate the evacuation of its nationals, whose Elysee has made their security an “absolute priority”. “The Ministry of the Armed Forces will deploy military reinforcements and air assets to the United Arab Emirates in the coming hours, so that the first evacuations to Abu Dhabi can begin,” said the Quai d’Orsay, adding to have also “decided to relocate the embassy on the site of the Kabul airport (…) to proceed in particular with the evacuation of all our compatriots who would still be in the country ”.
The French authorities claim to be “in contact with the French who have come forward” and recall that these “methodical evacuation operations of our nationals have been underway for weeks”. The French present in Afghanistan had been invited in April to leave the country and a special flight had been chartered by the French authorities on July 16. The Elysée for its part underlined that the “immediate and absolute priority in the coming hours (was) the security of the French as well as the personnel on the spot, French and Afghan”.
Protect the Afghans who worked for the French army
Paris argues that France is “one of the few countries” to have maintained on the ground “the capacity to protect the Afghans who worked for the French army, as well as journalists, human rights activists. , Afghan artists and personalities particularly threatened “and reiterated its desire to” continue to protect the personalities of Afghan civil society threatened for their commitment “. “Everything is currently being implemented to maintain, as much as possible, a visa issuance capacity from Kabul airport,” assured the Quai d’Orsay.
According to the French authorities, 625 Afghans employed in French structures present in Afghanistan and their families have been received since May. France, which has had recourse in recent years to locally recruited civilians to help its staff on the ground, in particular interpreters, had already organized the reception of 550 people with their families between 2013 and 2015 and 800 in 2018 and 2019 , specifies the Elysee.
Like other European countries, France has since July suspended the expulsions of Afghan migrants who have refused their asylum applications.
France was present militarily in Afghanistan from 2001 to 2014 and counted up to nearly 4,000 soldiers in this country at the height of NATO’s engagement, accusing 89 dead and 700 wounded.