Erna Solberg can’t guarantee that all Norwegians will get out of Afghanistan, describes situation as “catastrophic”

On Monday, Prime Minister Erna Solberg described the situation at the airport in Kabul as catastrophic.

Solberg told NTB that she could not guarantee that all Norwegians would be transported out of the country and to safety.

“We have notified all Norwegians who are not connected to the embassy ​that they should travel at an earlier time last week. Whether people have done so, we do not know at the moment. I think we will get out the Norwegians who work around the embassy, and I sincerely hope that we will get out the families of all those who have worked for Norway,” Solberg told NTB.

“Catastrophic”

Like Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, Solberg used the word “catastrophic” to describe the situation at the airport in Kabul.

“It’s chaotic and catastrophic. We had all hoped that we could do this in a more orderly form than what is happening now, with a clearer and longer notice period,” she said.

Solberg believes that the conquest of Kabul came surprisingly quickly.

“The assessment is that this came as a surprise – the fact that the Taliban came so quickly and so close to Kabul and that the government just gave up. I think most people had expected that there would be a fight at the entrance to Kabul, also because the police force that was there was better trained – these include those we have trained,” Solberg said.

Source: © NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today / #NorwayTodayNews

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