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A Taliban fighter guards captured Afghan security personnel in the captured provincial capital of Gasni
Photo: Gulabuddin Amiri / AP
After the militant Islamist Taliban has drastically gained land in Afghanistan, several Western representations are withdrawing their embassy staff from the capital, Kabul.
The federal government wants to reduce the staff of the German embassy to the "absolute minimum".
Denmark and Norway announced that they will temporarily close their embassies in Kabul.
The USA announced on Thursday that it would reduce its embassy staff and send around 3,000 additional soldiers to the airport in Kabul. London also wants to send around 600 soldiers to secure the repatriation of the British. A spokesman for the Federal Ministry of Defense did not rule out that Bundeswehr soldiers could also be used to secure a return operation. The Bundeswehr has forces ready "if the worst comes to the worst," he said.
In any case, a support team will be sent to the Afghan capital immediately, said Foreign Minister Heiko Maas (SPD) in Denzlingen, Baden-Württemberg.
How many employees will be flown out, he did not say for security reasons.
According to Maas, the embassy staff would be flown out with charter planes.
Afghan local staff who used to work for the armed forces or federal ministries or who still work for them today would also be flown out.
Maas confirmed that the visas for the local staff will be issued in Germany in order to speed up the process.
"We will coordinate all further measures with our international partners in the next few days." Maas called on all Germans to leave the country immediately.
A high double-digit number of German citizens is still in the country.
430 million euros in aid
The decisions were taken by the federal government's crisis team, which met on Friday in view of the dramatic situation in Afghanistan.
The Development Ministry is also suspending all projects in areas conquered by the Taliban, as Development Minister Gerd Müller (CSU) said.
Germany has pledged 430 million euros in aid to Afghanistan this year alone.
Maas had already announced that no further penny would flow from it when the Taliban take power.
The deportation of Afghan asylum seekers from Germany has already been suspended.
The Taliban, meanwhile, continued their conquests in the country at a rapid pace.
Within a week they took over half of all provincial capitals.
According to information from the dpa news agency, 18 of the 34 provincial capitals were under the control of the Islamists on Friday.
After the second largest city of Kandahar at night and the important city of Lashkargah in the morning, the Taliban captured Pul-i Alam in the Logar province, a provincial capital only around 70 kilometers south of the capital Kabul.
From Pul-i Alam it is around an hour and a half by car to Kabul.
Security circles have long said that Taliban fighters are being gathered in the province for an attack on Kabul.
Three major cities, including the capital Kabul and Mazar-i-Sharif in the north, are still under government control.
"We are on the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe"
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani remained silent on the situation for a long time.
On Friday afternoon (local time) his deputy Amrullah Saleh announced that a security meeting in the presidential palace had decided to continue to oppose the "army of ignorance and terror" - the Taliban.
All necessary means will be made available to the security forces.
It is estimated that there are around 300,000 security guards and 60,000 Taliban fighters.
According to the United Nations, the situation of the people in Afghanistan is becoming increasingly desperate. "We are on the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe," said a spokeswoman for the UN refugee agency UNHCR on Friday in Geneva. Above all, women and children would flee from the advancing Taliban. A spokesman for the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) said that around a third of the population's food supply is no longer guaranteed. Two million children alone are dependent on help. The situation is becoming increasingly confusing.
Several EU countries such as Germany, France and Denmark have temporarily suspended their deportations to Afghanistan.
On Friday, however, the Czech Republic announced that it would continue to hold on to the returns.
Every asylum application is examined individually, said Interior Minister Jan Hamáček on Friday the online edition of the newspaper »MF Dnes«.
However, the Czech Foreign Ministry ordered an emergency meeting for Saturday to discuss the security situation of the country's embassy in Kabul.
mrc / dpa