Evacuation from Afghanistan: Hope for the plane to save


Status: 16.08.2021 01:53 a.m.

Now that the Taliban have taken power in Afghanistan, it is time to evacuate Kabul. The local armed forces are particularly concerned – they report fear of death.

By Anja Günther, ARD capital studio

Events roll over – not only in Afghanistan, but also in political Berlin. The first Bundeswehr military transporters of the type A400M set off for Kabul. The German embassy in the Afghan capital is closed, the employees are to be brought to safety from the military part of Kabul airport, as Federal Foreign Minister Heiko Maas announced:

We are now doing everything we can to enable our nationals and our former local staff to leave the country in the coming days. The circumstances under which this can take place are difficult to predict at the moment.

“This is a dangerous mission”

The Bundeswehr supports and secures the evacuation operation with paratroopers. The plan is to first bring the embassy staff as well as employees of aid organizations and Afghan local staff to a neighboring Afghan country – from there they will then go on to Germany by civil aircraft. Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer stated that the Bundeswehr is prepared for extreme situations: “We know that this is a very difficult situation for the people on the ground. But also for the soldiers. This is a dangerous mission in which we are them send now. ”

The situation is extremely dangerous and difficult for the Afghan local staff. You had supported the Bundeswehr’s longstanding military operation in Afghanistan – as an interpreter and driver, for example. Now they fear the revenge of the radical Islamic Taliban for this.

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“It clearly resonates with fear of death”

Axel Steier, spokesman for the aid organization Mission Lifeline, described the ARD capital studio the dramatic situation of the local workers and their families. “Local staff and their families who are stranded report to us at or outside the airport. The situation is hopeless, people don’t know where to go.

Left, FDP and Greens accused the Union and SPD of a lack of care and irresponsibility towards the Afghan local staff. According to the Green defense expert Omid Nouripour, around 8,000 people are affected.

We have been discussing the protection of those who are in danger because they have helped us Germans for nine years. The federal government has been talking about it for weeks, got 1700 (local staff) out, but not thousands. That is a moral failure, but it also destroys Germany’s image in the world as a reliable partner.

“Rule of a fanatical minority”

Foreign Minister Maas said the news from Afghanistan was difficult to take. The federal government, however, will have to put up with the accusation that it is carefully approaching this situation. Many experts had warned that after the withdrawal of NATO troops, the country would fall into the hands of the Taliban.

The withdrawal was premature and the US is responsible for it, says Norbert Röttgen. As a CDU politician, however, he is part of the grand coalition and admitted to the ARD interview Mistake: “To do nothing, to watch, to just follow this inactivity, a serious American mistake and not to ask: What is our own responsibility? After all, we were there for 20 years. That leads to the fact that we Afghans again not left to their own devices, but under the rule of a fanatical minority. “

Obviously, the German government was surprised by the rapid advance of the Taliban. And apparently those responsible in the defense and foreign ministries have not agreed for too long what is best to do and when. The German rescue operation has now started – with an uncertain outcome.



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