Poland has ended its Afghanistan evacuations, but European countries pledged Wednesday that they would continue to support the effort. As the clock ticks down, a dramatic airlift of refugees fleeing Taliban rule is underway.
President Joe Biden said he will stick to his Aug. 31 deadline for completing the U.S. pullout, as the Taliban insisted he must, ramping up pressure on the already risky operation to fly people out of Kabul.
The European allies tried to get more time, but they lost the argument. As a practical matter, it may be necessary for them to stop their evacuations prior the departure of the last American troops. Many countries are still unsure when they will end their operations. This may be to avoid another deadly crush at an airport which is one of the last exits from the country.
Nearly 20 years ago, the Taliban took back control of Afghanistan. They were expelled in the U.S.-led invasion that followed the 9/11 attacks. Al-Qaida coordinated the attack while the Taliban was sheltered by them. Many Afghans fled fearing reprisals and a return of the brutal rule they used to run the country when they were last in power.
Many people are still trying to flee, and it is not certain that they will all be able to leave before the end. However, any decision by Biden not to leave could spark fighting between the Taliban fighters and the Western airlift troops.
Gabriel Attal, a French government spokesperson, stated Wednesday that evacuations were “due to extreme tension on ground… and American forces’ scheduled departure,” According to him, his country’s evacuation will likely end “a few minutes or maybe a few more days” before the American departure.
Although the Taliban stated that they would allow commercial air traffic to resume after they take control of the airport on Aug. 31, it is not clear if airlines would fly into an airport run by militants.
Marcin Przydacz (Polish deputy foreign minister) announced Wednesday that Poland had evacuated its last group of members after consulting with U.S. officials and British officials.
Przydacz stated, “After a lengthy analysis of reports about the security situation we cannot risk the life of our diplomats or of our soldiers any more.”
Przydacz stated that some troops would remain for a short time to finish operations. Poland has flown more than a dozen aircraft to evacuate hundreds of people to Warsaw. Some of them later went on to other countries.
Last week, the Czech Republic declared its evacuation mission completed. Hungary stated that it will soon end its operations.
According to the White House, Wednesday saw around 19,000 people evacuated from Kabul in 24 hours. According to the White House, the U.S. assisted in the evacuation of approximately 82,300 people following the Taliban’s takeover in mid August.
Antony Blinken, Secretary of State, stated that as many as 1,500 Americans could be in need of evacuation. This figure suggests that the U.S.-led airlift may be completed by Tuesday’s deadline. According to the State Department, there were approximately 6,000 Americans who wanted out of Afghanistan at the time that the airlift started Aug. 14. About 4,500 have been evacuated thus far, Blinken stated.
John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesperson, said that the military would “continue to evacuate need populations all the way until the end.” However, he also stated that there will be a balance in the final hours as 5,400 troops will be leaving Kabul. Critical systems will also have to be removed.
In Kabul itself, life has been slow to return to normal, but many people — especially women — are staying inside, fearful of the Taliban or the general instability.
Kabul Mayor Dawood Sultanzoy stated that many city workers have not returned to work due to the lack of skilled staff affecting normal operations. He said that the blast walls have been removed from the city, which were made common by the Taliban and other armed groups in recent years. These attacks on the Western-backed government led to bombings.
Taliban claim that the war has ended over decades and that there will not be any revenge on those who opposed them. Many Afghans distrust this group and have heard of summary executions and other abuses occurring in areas under Taliban rule. Many fear the Taliban’s return to hard-line Islamic rule in the 1990s when women were mostly confined to their homes.
After the Taliban took over most of Afghanistan within days, chaos at Kabul’s airport has captivated the world. Afghans poured onto the tarmac last week, and some clung to a U.S. military transport plane as it took off, later plunging to their deaths. Seven people were killed that day and seven more died in panicked stampedes on Sunday.
In the days that followed, thousands have flocked to the airport. The U.S. along with its allies have tried to expedite the evacuation by sometimes flying people out of the country before they have their paperwork processed. They also bring them to transit points. A group of 51 people arrived in Uganda on Wednesday to make it the first African country to be a transit point.
European nations, including American allies Germany and the United Kingdom, had pressed for a longer window to continue evacuations. Despite an online emergency summit of the Group of Seven, Biden has maintained the August date.
The deadline was set and European nations were forced to comply.
In a speech to parliament, Angela Merkel, German Chancellor, stated that the overall deployment “literally stands and falls with stance of militarily strongest member the alliance, The U.S. was always clear to me.”
She said, “We will continue to evacuate as long as possible”, without specifying when.
The U.S. military coordinates all traffic into and out of Kabul’s airport for the moment. Suhail Shaheen, a Taliban spokesperson, tweeted that people with legal documents will be allowed to fly commercially out of Kabul Airport after the August deadline.
A stream of military aircraft took off from the airport on Wednesday as thousands of evacuees waited for their turn. Some stayed outside, knee-deep in sewage, waving identification documents at Western soldiers in the hope of being allowed to cross the barbed wire fence and board a flight out.
Although the withdrawal deadline is less than a week away from now, Patricia Lewis, an analyst, stated that the practical deadline for evacuations to cease was “the next few days.”
Lewis, the director of Chatham House’s international security program, said that there is a lot of work to do.
Lewis stated that all of the allies depend on the U.S. to provide military and air cover. They can’t risk their people, so it all depends on when the U.S. begins packing up.
