The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Afghanistan: For many aid workers, hope is fading - the Taliban only allow foreigners to the airport

2021-08-18T06:22:00.577Z


The Bundeswehr airlift from Kabul has started. So far, a total of 132 people, mostly German citizens, have been flown out in two flights.


The Bundeswehr airlift from Kabul has started.

So far, a total of 132 people, mostly German citizens, have been flown out in two flights.

Kabul / Munich - The Bundeswehr confirmed on Tuesday afternoon that a second aircraft with 125 people from Afghanistan * on board had landed in Tashkent in the neighboring country of Uzbekistan.

On board, according to the Ministry of Defense, “German citizens and Afghan local staff and others to be protected”.

Foreign Minister Heiko Maas (SPD) wrote: "The airlift has started and will be continued intensively, provided that the security situation somehow allows it."

The security situation is a problem.

On Monday there was chaos at the airport in Kabul.

Thousands of Afghans had stormed the airport and tried to get into a plane.

The USA * sent more armed forces.

4,000 US soldiers were on site on Tuesday, and another 2,000 are to follow.

Expert on evacuation flights from Afghanistan: "It's primarily about Germans now"

The soldiers brought the airport under control on Tuesday so that it could be flown again.

On the night of Tuesday, the first Bundeswehr plane had to take off with only seven passengers due to the security situation - five Germans, one European and an Afghan from Kabul.

The A400M transport plane had previously circled over Kabul airport for five hours while running out of petrol because the tarmac was closed.

The Bundeswehr was planning two more evacuation flights from Kabul on Tuesday.

But the question is who the airlift will still help.

According to the federal government, around 10,000 people are waiting to be evacuated, including many Afghan helpers with their families.

Only some of them are at the airport - and the Taliban only want to let foreigners with foreign passports through.


Marcus Grotian, head of the “Sponsorship Network Afghan Local Workers”, assesses the situation of local workers as “very bitter”. He received 400 to 500 messages a day from local staff, "whom we can no longer help," he said on German television. It is not realistic that these can now be brought from Afghanistan. Hundreds of German local workers had to go into hiding from their collective accommodation in Kabul (see article below). “We always feared that we would get to this point where we no longer have any answers and say 'good luck' to people, we warned it that it could happen, we came up with solutions that no one wanted to hear. And now we're letting 80 percent of our local workers and their families fall into the hands of the Taliban, ”said Grotian.


Heiko Maas on Afghanistan: situation "dangerous" for local staff

Carlo Masala, Professor of International Politics at the Bundeswehr University in Munich, estimates that the paratroopers can bring local personnel to the airport as very little. The Taliban had drawn a ring around the airport and a clear line: foreigners are allowed out, locals are not. "It is now primarily about Germans," Masala told our newspaper on Tuesday. It is impossible to say exactly how the operation will take place. Presumably there are assembly points in Kabul, from where the paratroopers collect those to be evacuated and bring them past the Taliban to the airport. "This is a very risky action." Success also depends on the USA. The US government has announced that it will stay at the airport for two more weeks, but it is unsure whether that will happen. "If so, there is still a lot of timegetting a lot of people out. If not, it will be very extreme. Because without the Americans, the security situation is uncontrollable, ”said Masala.

The assessment of the Ministry of Defense also feeds the doubts. "With the lockdown of the airport, the Taliban are increasingly enabling international forces to set up orderly air traffic to evacuate their nationals," said Tuesday's internal paper. "At the same time, however, (...) an evacuation of former AFG (Afghan) local staff is made more difficult." Foreign Minister Maas admitted with regard to the local staff: "For them the situation is much more dangerous because the promise that the Taliban will let through at the corresponding checkpoints German diplomats in Qatar are now to negotiate directly with the Taliban, Maas said on Tuesday evening.

The situation in Afghanistan is writing many fateful stories right now. One is that of Naim Muradi, 32. He has lived in Weilheim for 25 years and has a German passport. Last autumn he went to Afghanistan, the country of his birth, for the German Armed Forces. Muradi worked at a German base, took care of the sanitary facilities. At the end of July, however, he did not fly back with the soldiers, but visited his wife Adena in Kabul, whom he married from afar last year and does not want to leave behind in Kabul, as friends from Weilheim tell. The attempt to make your way to the airport failed. The friends reached Naim Muradi on the cell phone and hope that he will make it onto one of the planes.

- W. HAUSKRECHT, KATHRIN BRACK AND ELENA ROYER * Merkur.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA

What will change in Afghanistan as a result of the Taliban's takeover? The radical Islamists speak at a press conference - and mimic the merciful savior.

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2021-08-18

You may like

News/Politics 2024-02-18T09:20:46.495Z

Trends 24h

News/Politics 2024-03-28T06:04:53.137Z

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.