The Bundeswehr continued its rescue mission in Kabul on Tuesday under difficult conditions.

After almost all German citizens have been flown out, at least as far as the Defense Ministry is aware, the work of the German soldiers is now primarily focused on flying out Afghan aid workers, people threatened by the Taliban and citizens of other countries.

Peter Carstens

Political correspondent in Berlin

  • Follow I follow

According to the Ministry of Defense, 944 people were flown out of Kabul on Monday.

In total, the Bundeswehr brought more than 3,650 people to be protected from Afghanistan on behalf of the Federal Foreign Office.

One will continue to fly "as long as possible," it said in a message.

There are still seven days to go before the deadline agreed between the United States and the Taliban ends.

“Die Linke” announces abstention

“Die Linke” criticized the fact that the parliamentary mandate, which was debated in the Bundestag on Wednesday, mainly took into account Germans; the term "local staff" is not in the decision. “Die Linke” could not agree to a decision that “treats people so shabbily and leaves them in the lurch”. Party chairman Janine Wissler said that abstaining was “a viable option.” Left-wing MP Sevim Dagdelen had previously described the rescue operation of the Bundeswehr as a “perfidious simulation of the ability to act”. The Bundestag is to retrospectively allow the deployment of up to 600 soldiers on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the Foreign Office announced that more than half of those flown out are Afghans: more than 2,000 out of 3,000. More than two thirds of the remaining flown out are citizens from another 36 countries who were rescued from the attack by the Taliban terrorist group.

Whether the demand of the “left” was fulfilled to fly as many lesbian, gay and queer people (LGTB) as possible could not be inferred from the current statistics.

However, the Special Forces Command (KSK), among others, tries to escort physically weaker people, children, senior citizens and women who cannot make it to the besieged gates at the airport.

On Monday evening, a plane with 211 people seeking protection had arrived in Tashkent, and on Tuesday morning at 9 a.m. another Bundeswehr A400M transporter arrived in Kabul.