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Several Afghans on Germany's evacuation list have died

October 8, 2022

The German government says some people it wanted to evacuate after the Taliban took power in Afghanistan have since died. Some deaths were violent, but none seemed linked to any cooperation with Germany, it said.

https://p.dw.com/p/4HwTQ
People in a plane after their evacuation from Kabul
Germany has evacuated thousands from Afghanistan, but help has come too late for someImage: Marc Tessensohn/Bundeswehr/dpa/picture alliance

Thirty-two people who helped German armed forces during their mission in Afghanistan or were otherwise endangered have died while waiting to be taken to Germany following the Islamist Taliban's takeover in August 2021, according to German media.

The information was given in response to a question by Left Party parliamentarian Clara Bünger, with German news magazine Der Spiegel reporting first on the matter.

How did the deaths occur?

According to the list provided in response to the question, 15 of the Afghans concerned died a natural death or in an accident.

Nine died in violent incidents, however, including one local helper killed during an attack on a mosque by the terrorist group "Islamic State," the list says. Another local helper committed suicide.

The cause of seven of the deaths remained unclear, the information provided by the government said.

But none of the deaths was visibly connected to anyone's activities in helping German forces, according to the government.

The German Bundeswehr formed part of a 20-year US-led military mission in Afghanistan that came to a disorderly conclusion in July 2021.

The German government says it has arranged to take in more than 36,000 former local support staff and other endangered Afghans, including journalists and human rights activists, together with their approved family members over the past 15 months. More than two-thirds who have received such approval have been able to come to Germany, it says.

Germany investigates Afghanistan evacuation

A 'disaster'

Bünger called the situation a "disaster," telling Spiegel that the government had criminally failed to fetch endangered people from Afghanistan in time.

She also reproached the new government for not bringing at least those people to safety who had been told they could come to Germany.

The pullout of NATO-led troops from Afghanistan in 2021 was widely perceived as chaotic, with evacuations of Afghans seen as being in danger from the incoming Taliban rulers taking place with a general lack of preparation.

Many in Germany and elsewhere have since been concerned about the fates of those people who had aided foreign forces, whom the Taliban likely view as traitors.

tj/nm (Reuters, dpa)