The first rescue flights from Sudan were successful, but German citizens are still stuck in the country. Did the federal government react too late?
After the successful evacuation flights of the Bundeswehr from Sudan, parts of the opposition in the Bundestag criticized the hesitant behavior of the federal government in planning the operation. “The federal government will have to answer a few questions afterwards. It is not good that it was caught off guard by the development of the situation in Sudan,” said the foreign policy spokesman for the Union faction in the Bundestag, Jürgen Hardt, t-online.
He also criticized the fact that Germany had once again swum in the wake of its allies, “in this case France, which probably initially protected itself on site”. Hardt explained: “If Germany wants to be taken seriously in terms of security policy, you can’t always hide behind your partners.”
Like other countries, Germany began a military evacuation campaign in Sudan on Sunday. A total of three Bundeswehr Airbus A400Ms flew to Sudan to take in people. According to information from t-online, 311 people were evacuated on the first three flights, more than half of them are German citizens. Here you can read more about it.
The evacuation was “too difficult and too hesitant” for Gregor Gysi, the left-wing parliamentary group’s foreign policy spokesman in the Bundestag. “Of course” the federal government should have reacted earlier to the crisis. “There are other countries than China, Russia and Ukraine,” Gysi told t-online. “You have to take care of the three countries, but you can’t forget the others.”
Trittin: British evacuation delayed
The foreign politicians of the traffic light groups in the Bundestag are defending themselves against the criticism of the opposition. “In this extremely difficult and confusing situation, we have brought more than 300 people, Germans and other Europeans, to safety so far. That is a great achievement,” said the foreign policy spokesman for the Greens, Jürgen Trittin, t-online. “This escalation in the middle of a transformation process was not foreseen by the United Nations, the USA or anyone else. It was a nasty surprise for everyone.”
The Green politician sees a “significantly different situation” in Sudan than in the “chaos in Kabul” in August 2021. “The Europeans worked very well together” in Sudan. “Unfortunately, preparations for the evacuation were probably delayed by the British going it alone.”
The foreign policy spokesman for the SPD parliamentary group, Nils Schmid, said he was relieved that “a three-digit number of German citizens had been evacuated.” “The events in Sudan have shown once again how unexpectedly and suddenly a situation can escalate,” Schmid told t-online. “The federal government reacted prudently here and made the necessary preparations and agreements in good time so that the evacuation could begin immediately as soon as the circumstances on the ground permitted.”
Bundestag must subsequently mandate deployment
FDP foreign politician Ulrich Lechte also explained to t-online that the rescue operation was “going according to plan to date”. “The security situation in Sudan, which is difficult to calculate, did not allow for an earlier evacuation, so I cannot see any misconduct on the part of the federal government,” said Lechte.
The parliamentary groups agree that the Bundeswehr needs a mandate in the Bundestag for the evacuation mission. “This mission has to be mandated afterwards. That’s what the MPs expect,” said Trittin. The federal government will launch the mandate on Wednesday. “The Bundestag will decide this week.”
The opposition wants to use the debate in the Bundestag to critically question the evacuation process. “It is surprising that almost two years after the withdrawal from Kabul, NATO and EU countries are still evacuating individually,” said CDU politician Hardt. “Instead, I could very well imagine a joint rapid evacuation force with a Franco-German core. The CDU/CSU will ask these questions in the debates about the subsequent mandate.”
