Status: 08/17/2021 1:38 p.m.
Because of the Taliban’s takeover, Germany is suspending development aid for Afghanistan for the time being. For the current year, 250 million euros were actually planned.
In response to the change in power, the German government suspended state development aid for Afghanistan. That said the responsible minister Gerd Müller of the news agency dpa and the “Rheinische Post”.
For this year, 250 million euros were estimated. But none of this has yet been paid out. In addition, funds from other departments have so far flowed to Afghanistan, for example for humanitarian aid or police training. Germany had pledged a total of 430 million euros for this year.
Evacuations are now a priority
Afghanistan has so far been one of the priority countries for German development cooperation. Minister Müller said the German government was working “at full speed to get local staff from German development cooperation and aid organizations that cooperate with us who want to safely out of Afghanistan”. These would have the same right to protection as local Bundeswehr personnel.
“There are still around 1,000 local Afghan workers in ongoing development aid projects who must be rescued with their family members,” he told the “Augsburger Allgemeine”.
The German and international employees of the Society for International Cooperation (GIZ) have already left Afghanistan, Müller informed the “Rheinische Post”.
The Federal Ministry of the Interior has already promised that these people should get a visa after their arrival in Germany.
Maas had already announced the step
Federal Foreign Minister Heiko Maas had already announced last Thursday in the event that the radical Islamic Taliban would take power:
We will not give a cent more to Afghanistan when the Taliban have completely taken over, introduce Sharia law and this country becomes a caliphate.