German aid group 'suspends' Afghanistan operations

A report published on the website of the Afghan news channel Tolonews on Tuesday cited an unnamed GIZ source who said that all operations in Kabul had been suspended and foreign nationals had been evacuated, mainly to Dubai.

"The Kabul office is closed, and all national staff have been asked to stay at their homes until further notice," Tolonews quoted the unnamed source as saying.

On Monday, the DPA news agency cited unnamed GIZ workers who said that the organization's office in Kabul had been under lockdown since last week due to threats.

"GIZ sent all non-essential staff on holiday, dozens of them," one employee was quoted as saying. "They asked everyone else to work from home, and asked all of us to stop all movements, except for essential ones."

In response to a query from Deutsche Welle on Tuesday, the GIZ press department at its headquarters in Germany neither confirmed nor denied that operations in Kabul had been suspended.

In the emailed response, a press spokesman said that the GIZ had a "comprehensive security system" in place, as "security is the top priority." He added that the security situation in Afghanistan was such, that it required the GIZ to review its security measures on an ongoing basis, but that for obvious reasons, the organization does not comment on these in detail.

No confirmation of kidnapping

The GIZ has also not confirmed reports that a member of its staff was kidnapped in Kabul on Monday, referring such queries to the German Foreign Office in Berlin. The Foreign Office too has declined to confirm reports that a woman abducted by two armed men outside of her office in Kabul on Monday was a German national.

News agencies on Monday cited Afghan security officials who said they believed the kidnapping victim was a German GIZ worker.

"The aid worker is believed to be a German national and works for the GIZ," the AFP news agency quoted Kabul police spokesman Ebadullah Karimi as saying.

Back in May, a German GIZ worker who had been kidnapped by Taliban militants in Afghanistan's northern province of Kunduz was freed. According to his account of events, he managed to flee his captors after being held for around six weeks.

The GIZ, whose full name is the Deutsche Gesellschaft for Internationale Zusammenarbeit, is an aid agency owned entirely by the German government.

pfd/kms (AFP, dpa, AP)