Broadcaster based in Bonn Deutsche Welle correspondents evacuated from Afghanistan
Bonn / Berlin · Several Deutsche Welle employees were able to leave Afghanistan along with their families. This was announced by the broadcaster on Friday in Bonn. But relatives of employees of the Bonn Afghanistan editorial office are still waiting to leave the country.
Several employees of Deutsche Welle (DW) in Afghanistan have been evacuated to Pakistan along with their families. In total, 72 people have made it out of the country, which means DW has reached its first goal, the German broadcaster announced on Friday in Bonn. Families of the members of the Afghanistan editorial office in Bonn and two correspondents and their relatives were still waiting to leave the country. They are to be brought out of the country in the next round.
Deutsche Welle is based in Bonn and is a German public state-owned international broadcaster. Their service is available in 30 different languages.
The nine correspondents and DW's only female correspondent in Afghanistan had held out for days with their families in front of the airport in Kabul, waiting to be allowed into the secure area, the broadcaster said. After several failed attempts, they looked into the possibility of getting the group out of the country by another route. The security situation in Afghanistan and especially at the border crossings to neighboring countries was very difficult to assess. Moreover, the situation changed almost daily.
In August, Taliban fighters in the west of the country had shot dead one of the broadcaster's family members and seriously wounded another while pursuing a journalist. The radical Islamic militia had been searching for the DW journalist. The man is now working in Germany. According to DW, other relatives were able to escape at the last second and are on the run.
Meanwhile, the German Journalists' Association called on German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas (SPD) to actively support journalists and former media employees in Afghanistan. "The desperation is as great as the fear of death," said national chairman Frank Überall.
(Orig. text: epd / Translation: Carol Kloeppel)
