Germany pledges to speed up Afghanistan evacuation efforts

BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s new foreign minister has pledged to speed up efforts to get thousands of former local employees and other endangered people out of Afghanistan, four months after the country’s military airlift ended. Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said Thursday that more than 15,000 people whom Germany had promised to take in remain in Afghanistan, and around 135 German citizens are still in the country. She insisted that “they have not been forgotten.” Germany so far has facilitated the departure of about 10,000 people since the Taliban takeover of Kabul, 5,300 on its own military flights and some 5,000 since its airlift concluded in late August.