Belgium is reacting to the development of the situation in Afghanistan: It has decided to end the evacuation – Topka

Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo wrote on Twitter that “in view of the development of the situation in Afghanistan”, Belgium has decided to end its operations and evacuate the remaining personnel from the country. After five years on Tuesday, “all personnel from the operation have been gathered in Islamabad since 9.30pm,” De Croo wrote on the social network, stating that evacuees would be transported from Pakistan to Belgium “in the coming days”. He added that Belgium had taken this step “in consultation with European partners”.

From 9:30 pm (Belgian time), all Red Kite operation staff and evacuated staff are established in Islamabad.

Belgium will improve the report on our countries of evacuated people and the contingent of the Red Kite operation in their daily stores.

– Alexander De Croo (@alexanderdecroo) August 25, 2021

From Friday to Tuesday evening, Belgian military planes evacuated some 1,100 people from Kabul via the Pakistani capital Islamabad, including citizens of EU Member States – the Netherlands, Denmark and Luxembourg, and vulnerable Afghans and their families. On Wednesday, Poland and Germany also announced plans to end military evacuation flights from Afghanistan.

The European Union on Tuesday called on the United States to provide protection for Kabul airport “as long as necessary” even after the final departure of US troops from Afghanistan at the end of August. European Foreign Minister Josep Borrell said over the weekend that it would be “impossible” to get all the people who had worked with Allied Western forces, including their families, out of Afghanistan by August 31. US President Joe Biden nevertheless insists on this deadline, which he set for the complete expulsion of US forces from Afghanistan.

On August 15, the Afghan militant Taliban occupied the capital Kabul and took power in Afghanistan. Since then, tens of thousands of people have been trying to get abroad from this Central Asian country. Western countries have begun evacuation flights for their diplomats, citizens and Afghan collaborators, urgently trying to evacuate people from the country before 31 August.