Germany to sharply cut embassy staff in Afghanistan

Oliver Towfigh Nia

Berlin (AA) – Germany announced on Friday that it will substantially reduce its embassy staff in Kabul in response to the advances of Taliban insurgents, and urged its citizens to leave the country immediately.

Because of the Taliban advances in Afghanistan, the German government has decided to reduce the staff at its embassy in Kabul to the “absolute minimum,” Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on Friday in the southern German town of Denzlingen.

A German support team will be sent to the Afghan capital Kabul immediately, he added.

The embassy staff will be flown out of Afghanistan on charter planes, Maas said, adding that Afghan local staff, who used to work for the German military or ministries, or who still do, will also be flown out.

Two charter flights were planned for the imminent evacuation.

Maas confirmed that visas for the local Afghan staff will be issued in Germany to speed up the process.

"We will coordinate all further measures with our international partners in the next few days," he added.

Maas called on all Germans to leave the country immediately, as a double-digit number of German citizens are still in the country.

The decisions were taken by the federal government's crisis team, which met on Friday amid the dramatically worsening security situation in Afghanistan.

The US already announced on Thursday that it would reduce its embassy staff and send around 3,000 additional soldiers to Kabul airport.

A spokesman for the German Defense Ministry did not rule out the possibility of using soldiers to secure a return operation.

The Bundeswehr has forces that are “available in the event of an emergency,” he said.