Rescue from Afghanistan: Bundeswehr flies more than 120 people

125 people were flown out of Kabul in a second Bundeswehr aircraft. “The airlift has started and will be continued intensively,” said Foreign Minister Maas. Two more flights are planned for today.

According to Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, a German evacuation plane left Kabul airport with 125 people on board. As Maas announced, these were Germans, Afghans and members of other nations. “The airlift has started and will be continued intensively if the security situation somehow allows it,” he said. A spokesman for the Bundeswehr operations command confirmed that the machine has now landed safely in Tashkent in Uzbekistan.

From there the people should then be brought to Germany. Lufthansa is participating in this with three special flights. An Airbus A340 will take passengers from Bundeswehr flights in Tashkent and fly from there to Frankfurt on Tuesday evening, said a Lufthansa spokeswoman. Two more flights are planned for Wednesday.

Afghans on board too

According to the Ministry of Defense, Afghan local staff are also among the passengers. On Tuesday night, the Bundeswehr flew a first group of only seven people in an A400M military aircraft to neighboring Uzbekistan. By yesterday afternoon, four Bundeswehr aircraft had made their way to Kabul, but some of them were unable to land there due to the unsafe situation.

Difficult situation for the local staff

Above all, the Afghans on board the plane should be relieved to be able to leave the country. Because of their cooperation with the Bundeswehr, they had to expect acts of revenge by the Taliban in recent years. The Islamists had also declared that they would not allow citizens to leave the country after they came to power. “The Taliban have announced that Afghans are not allowed to leave the country,” said Carlo Masala, a political scientist from the Bundeswehr University in Munich tagesschau24. “There is no guarantee that we will all get the local staff out.” Masala was more optimistic about the Germans who remained in Kabul. As long as the Americans secured the airport, foreigners could be flown out.

Two more flights planned

The federal government now wants to continue the evacuation campaign at full speed, Maas said at a press conference in Berlin. Two more Bundeswehr aircraft are to land in Kabul today and “we are working flat out to ensure that more people can be brought to safety as soon as possible”. Fortunately, the situation at the airport has stabilized, and the Bundeswehr is now securing access for the German mission there.

The main task of securing the airport remains with the US military: According to the White House, around 3,500 soldiers are now deployed there. The Department of Defense in Washington said the number would rise to around 4,000 later in the day. In a few days there should be up to 6,000 soldiers.

As Federal Foreign Minister Maas further explained, foreign machines, such as US planes, should continue to be used. On Monday night, 40 embassy employees were brought to Doha in the Gulf emirate of Qatar on a plane belonging to the American allies. Maas also favors a coordinated European approach, both in terms of rescue flights and in dealing with the Taliban.

Looking for more helpers

According to Chancellor Angela Merkel, a large number of the local forces in the Bundeswehr and Federal Police are already in Germany. Now they are trying to establish contact with around 1000 local staff in the field of development cooperation, some of whom are not in Kabul. In addition, there are helpers from non-governmental organizations.

The reason why they were not initially on the list of those to be evacuated was the assumption that development cooperation could initially be continued after the withdrawal of the military, said Merkel. This is no longer possible.