Closes Its Embassy In Afghanistan, Germany Sends Two A400M . Military Planes

Illustration of the German military in Afghanistan. (Wikimedia Commons/ISAF Headquarters Public Affairs Office)

JAKARTA - The German government on Sunday closed its embassy in Kabul and prepared to send A400M military aircraft to Afghanistan, to evacuate as many Germans and local Afghan auxiliaries as possible, after Taliban insurgents entered the Afghan capital.

The Taliban managed to enter the Afghan capital, Kabul, taking control of the presidential palace, forcing President Ashraf Ghani to flee on Sunday 15 August.

"We are doing everything to allow our citizens and our former local staff to leave Afghanistan in the next few days," German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told reporters.

The success of the Taliban entering Kabul sooner than previously predicted, prompting the German government to speed up the evacuation. US intelligence said last week that the Taliban could besiege Kabul in 30 days and capture the city in 90 days.

German embassy staff have been transferred to the military section of Kabul airport, Maas said. Meanwhile, core staff will remain there in the coming days to assist with further evacuations, he added.

Separately, Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer said military aircraft would leave Germany's Wunstorf air base on Sunday evening and Monday morning to head for Kabul.

According to a person familiar with the matter, the two planes will carry the evacuated people to Uzbekistan's capital, Tashkent. Maas only said that they would go to neighboring Afghanistan.

"From there, people will be taken to Germany on civilian chartered planes," said a source familiar with the matter.

Caption

Germany, the United States and other international partners have agreed to support each other in their evacuation efforts, he said.

The Foreign Ministry said on Friday that fewer than 100 Germans remained in Afghanistan apart from government officials still working there. It was not clear on Sunday how many local maids would be flown in.

"Our goal is to get as many people out as possible for as long as the situation on the ground allows," Kramp-Karrenbauer said.

Meanwhile, government sources spoke of at least 1,000 former Afghan employees, including immediate family members, but added that this was only a rough estimate.

Separately, a support network set up by German troops put the number of those eligible for relocation under government regulations at 2,000.

For information, the German Defense Minister last week rejected calls for his troops to return to Afghanistan, after the Taliban insurgents seized the city of Kunduz.

Being the second-largest foreign military force after the US in Afghanistan, Germany had its military base in the city of Kunduz for the past decade, before deciding to withdraw in conjunction with the US-led international coalition troop withdrawal program.

Secretary Kramp-Karrenbauer blamed former United States President Donald Trump for undermining the Afghan operation, even though his successor President Joe Biden implemented a withdrawal policy.

"The unfortunate deal between Trump and the Taliban is the beginning of the end," he said of the deal Donald Trump made with the Taliban militants in 2020.