Afghanistan – Bild’s Vice President Paul Ronzheimer: That’s why we continue to report from here

Build reporter Paul Ronzheimer is in Afghanistan!

“It was difficult to come in. We were on the road for about 30 hours,” he explained to BILD TV broadcaster BILD Live.

Paul Ronzheimer and photographer Giorgos Mutafis managed to cross the border from Uzbekistan to Afghanistan near Tarmiz by land. There they crossed the “Bridge of Friendship” to Hairton – the only route between Uzbekistan and Afghanistan with a border of 135 km.

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BILD vice president and photographer Giorgos Moutafis is probably the only German journalist in the crisis zone to report for BILD LIVE from Afghanistan after the Taliban came to power.

His first impressions: “The Taliban I met is smiling a lot. At every checkpoint someone says hello in a friendly manner, “It seems you are interested in showing foreign journalists what is currently going on in the country, he reports on BILD LIVE.

Afghanistan is now completely in the hands of the Taliban and on its own the US pulled out its last soldiers from Afghanistan on Tuesday night. The US embassy also ceased operations.

Background: BILD wanted to report from the Taliban’s hell in Kabul last week – but the US military did not let Paul Ronzimer out of the airport area in Kabul, flying him to Doha (Qatar). But he did not give up: from there his journey began with Moscow and Tashkent until he managed to enter Afghanistan. According to rumours, the border with Uzbekistan was also tight – at least this was reported by the Russian news agency TASS. Refugees leaving Afghanistan cannot be seen there.

There the white flag of the new Taliban emirate in Afghanistan is already flying. Ronzheimer is now approaching Masar-e-Sharif, where the Bundeswehr base was located until a few months ago. But he wants to reach the capital Kabul this evening.

Ronzheimer: “But one must not forget: many, many people live here in fear”. But: “My job is the job of journalists reporting from troubled areas when something like this happens. In the end it also means having a protective cover. Because as long as we journalists report what’s happening there, people are a little bit are safe.”