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"Violence and intimidation" - The actions of the Taliban against German helpers

The Federal Government is monitoring attempts by the Taliban to influence humanitarian aid provided by international organizations and NGOs in Afghanistan.

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"Violence and intimidation" - The actions of the Taliban against German helpers

The Federal Government is monitoring attempts by the Taliban to influence humanitarian aid provided by international organizations and NGOs in Afghanistan. This was confirmed by the Federal Foreign Office and the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) WELT AM SONNTAG.

In the service of the BMZ, the Society for International Cooperation (GIZ) provides development aid in the crisis country. GIZ security assessments available to this newspaper show that the Taliban are attempting to exercise power over humanitarian aid work, raiding German offices and arresting local staff. GIZ risk analysts prepare these documents and regularly send them to the Federal Foreign Office. WELT AM SONNTAG received access to the reports for the period up to mid-2022 in the course of a request under the Freedom of Information Act.

According to this, the security experts of the federal government reported "attempts at intimidation by local Taliban" in February. Several arrests and "incidents of physical violence and intimidation" have been registered at GIZ locations. On the part of the development workers, there is uncertainty as to "which local Taliban administrative units must be informed in advance about activities". The Taliban have also banned the organization of educational activities in private accommodation. Their goal is to control and influence the teaching materials used.

Since the Islamists took power in August 2021, the federal government has been trying to support the Afghan population "away from the government and close to the population", as a spokesman for the BMZ said. There is no cooperation with the Taliban regime, so the de facto rulers are not legitimized.

Nevertheless, the federal government is apparently relying on a minimum of coordination with the Islamists. Between April and May, GIZ reported that numerous properties belonging to international organizations in the provinces of Nangarhar and Takhar, including GIZ sites, were searched by Taliban-led commandos. However, the raid on the GIZ facilities in Jalalabad was prevented by the submission of a written security guarantee, which the Taliban Germany had apparently issued.

The opposition in the Bundestag has questions about Germany's relationship with the Taliban. The Chairwoman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Sevim Dagdelen (left), recently wanted to know from BMZ to what extent the national staff hired by GIZ would be hired with the knowledge or approval of the Taliban. The ministry responded that the hiring was happening "without Taliban involvement."

Dagdelen criticizes that the federal government is avoiding an answer. Although she ruled out direct involvement of the Taliban in hiring new local staff, she did not want to say whether the recruitment was made with toleration or approval from Kabul. "The federal government is called upon to provide humanitarian aid for Afghanistan at all levels and to release the frozen state funds for humanitarian purposes."

According to information from this newspaper, GIZ has hired more than 250 new national staff in Afghanistan since the Taliban took power. According to GIZ security analyses, two employees were arrested between April and May.

In the first case, an employee violated internal recommendations and was briefly interrogated by Taliban security forces. In the second case, an employee of Taliban security forces was taken into custody. On request, the BMZ announced that both had now been released from custody.

The federal government asserts that former and active development aid workers are not subjected to any systematic persecution. According to the GIZ assessments, previous reports of threats by employees "either could not be verified or turned out to be false reports".

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