France ended its evacuations from Taliban-controlled Afghanistan , officials said, one day after a suicide bombing left scenes of carnage outside Kabul airport.
The airlift had to be stopped because “the security conditions were no longer being met at the airport”, Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and Defence Minister Florence Parly said in the wake of Thursday’s attack, which killed scores of Afghan civilians and 13 US troops.
In a statement, the ministers blamed the lack of security on the “rapid disengagement of the American forces”.
Separately, Parly tweeted that the French forces had managed to fly around 3,000 people out of Afghanistan before their airlift operation was halted.
“In less than two weeks, the French military has brought some 3,000 people to safety, including more than 2,600 Afghans,” she tweeted.
The French embassy team in Kabul has reached Abu Dhabi and from there will fly home to France, the ministers said.
France has called for setting up humanitarian operations to assist the thousands of Afghan nationals who failed to get a flight out to leave by other means.
“Our efforts continue,” the two ministers said.
A French delegation met Thursday with Taliban representatives with the talks centring on the situation at the Kabul airport and the airlift operations, the ministers said.
