Biden addressed the ongoing situation in Kabul during a White House speech
- German man shot while trying to reach airport
- Over 18,000 people evacuated since Sunday — NATO official
- Taliban steps up search for Afghans who helped US — report
- President Joe Biden has vowed to bring Americans home from Kabul
This live updates article has now closed. This story was last updated at 21:40 UTC/GMT. To look back at Thursday’s developments in Afghanistan, read on here.
German Bundeswehr evacuation flight lands in Tashkent
A German A400M Airbus military transport plane has touched down in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. On board were 172 people in need of safety, the Bundeswehr said in an official post on Twitter.
Taliban website outages reported
The official websites of the Taliban appeared to have vanished from the internet late on Friday.
The Taliban operate separate websites in Pashto, Dari, Arabic, Urdu and English. All five appeared to be unreachable on Friday. The outage was first reported by The Washington Post.
It was not immediately clear whether a technical fault or something else was to blame.
Countries agree to temporarily host Afghan evacuees
The United Arab Emirates has agreed to host 5,000 Afghan nationals. The Gulf state will host the evacuees for 10 days on their way to a third country at the request of the United States, the country’s foreign ministry said on Friday. The Afghans will be evacuated by the US military.
The UAE has so far facilitated the evacuation of 8,500 people from Afghanistan on its aircraft and through its airports, it said.
A Qatari official told news agency Reuters the Gulf Arab state was “continuing our efforts to evacuate people from Afghanistan. Additional flights are scheduled during the upcoming days.”
The tiny Gulf kingdom of Bahrain has said it will also allow planes carrying evacuees to stop over in the kingdom as part of efforts to assist rescue operations in Afghanistan.
In South America, Colombia has also said it will temporarily host Afghans while they await approval to enter the United States, President Ivan Duque said on Friday.
Duque did not specify how many Afghans would transit through Colombia. US and Colombian media outlets have reported that the number will be about 4,000.
Turkey’s Erdogan speaks with Greek Prime Minister
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis by phone on Friday about the situation in Afghanistan.
Erdogan said Afghan migrants could present “a serious challenge for everyone” and urged the EU to stick to a 2016 refugee deal.
Mitsotakis reportedly said there is a need to help Afghanistan’s Central Asian neighbors take in the migrants.
Greece reportedly finished contruction on a new wall with Turkey on Friday as a means to keep out the migrants.
NATO has ‘some leverage’ over Taliban, Stoltenberg tells DW
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told DW Friday that the alliance has “some leverage” over the Taliban to faciliate evacuations.
“The problem is not the lack of planes. Many allies have stated clearly that they’re ready to receive Afghans. The challenge is to get them there,” he said.
He said NATO will “use political tools, diplomatic tools, potential sanctions” to ensure the “Taliban live up to their commitments” to allow people to leave the country.
He said this requires “tactical operational contacts with Taliban.”
He added that the current situation is “difficult for NATO” but said there needs to be strong ties between North America and Europe regardless of what happens in Afghanistan.
Biden gives update on evacuations in White House address
President Joe Biden gave an update on ongoing evacuations from Afghanistan in an address from the White House on Friday.
