Monday, August 16, 2021
Parliamentary mandate planned
“A few hundred soldiers” are supposed to go to Kabul
The federal government wants to fly German civilians and 2,000 local Afghan workers out of the country after the Taliban came to power. The Chancellery is apparently planning to move several hundred Bundeswehr soldiers to the crisis area. The Bundestag could vote on it next week.
The federal government is planning a parliamentary mandate for “a few hundred soldiers” for the evacuation mission of the German armed forces in Afghanistan. The government announced this on Sunday evening at a briefing by Chancellor Angela Merkel for the leaders of the Bundestag parliamentary groups. The cabinet should pass the bill on Wednesday, and the Bundestag will vote in a special session next week.
After consultation with the US, the federal government is assuming an “operation window until August 31,” it said. However, the government did not want to rule out the possibility that this window for the evacuation missions of the Bundeswehr might close earlier. The Federal Government’s plan presented by Chancellor Merkel also provides for the establishment of an airlift through which around 2,000 local workers are to be flown out – “women at particular risk, human rights activists and other employees of non-governmental organizations,” as announced in the briefing.
In the briefing with Merkel on Sunday evening, it was also announced that parts of the German embassy staff were to be flown out to Doha in the emirate of Qatar by US aircraft during the night. A “core team” from the embassy should stay behind in Kabul to organize the evacuation of more Germans. Their number is estimated at around 80.
.