The Bundeswehr is preparing to withdraw local aid workers from Afghanistan

BERLIN, Aug 14 (Reuters) – The German army is preparing to withdraw embassy staff in Kabul and Afghan aid workers from Afghanistan while Taliban militants take over more parts of the country, the Defense Ministry said on Saturday.

“It is now our top priority to bring those deserving of protection to Germany,” Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer said in a statement, adding that the deployment would be ordered by parliament.

The forces of the Bundeswehr are ready and would be deployed as soon as possible.

Germany’s conservative candidate to succeed Angela Merkel in the chancellery, Armin Laschet, previously said the foreign ministry, led by centre-left coalition partner SPD, had been too hesitant to present a new parliamentary motion for a Bundeswehr mandate to evacuate local aid workers.

He called on the State Department to authorize the army to provide exit assistance as soon as possible.

“The Bundeswehr has to rescue these people. That is the moral obligation after everything she has done for us,” said Laschet at an event in Giessen.

“We can no longer stand by and watch them being threatened by the Taliban and fundamentalists.”

Foreign Minister Heiko Maas from the SPD said on Friday that Germany would bring forward charter flights originally planned for the end of August to evacuate non-essential embassy staff in Kabul and Afghan helpers. Continue reading

Reporting by Andreas Rinke, text by Ludwig Burger, editing by Alison Williams and David Holmes

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