Local forces in Afghanistan - Hardly any cases of persecution known
Created: 2022-01-20Updated: 2022-01-20 06:27
Fighters from the militant Islamist Taliban's special forces arrive at Kabul airport.
(Archive image) © Khwaja Tawfiq Sediqi/AP/dpa
After NATO pulled out of Afghanistan, there was concern about what the Taliban would do to local forces.
In the meantime, it has become clear that there is hardly any reliable evidence of systematic persecution.
Berlin - Six months after the withdrawal of the German armed forces from Afghanistan, the development ministry and the defense department have no evidence of their own that former employees in the country were being targeted.
The Federal Development Ministry (BMZ) is "aware of a specific case in which a local employee of German development cooperation was detained for a week," said a spokesman for the ministry of the German Press Agency on request.
"Furthermore, the BMZ has no knowledge of its own that local German official development cooperation staff in Afghanistan have been threatened, abused or killed by the Taliban since August 2021."
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The BMZ is aware of individual reports from local staff about such incidents, the spokesman said.
However, these could not be verified, also due to a lack of German presence on site.
The Ministry of Defense said: "The Federal Ministry of Defense has no verifiable information about a general threat to former local Bundeswehr personnel since the Taliban took power, including a statement by the Taliban in this regard." or family members in Germany and aid organizations report attacks or threats by the Taliban against former local Bundeswehr personnel or their family members, said a spokesman for the German Press Agency.
dpa