Germany to ship home 20,000 litres of alcohol in Afghanistan troop pullout

Tens of thousands of cans of beer and hundreds of bottles of wine will be flown home by the German army as it pulls out of Afghanistan, according to reports.

A strict ban on drinking amid a heightened state of alert left German soldiers with a huge surplus of alcohol amounting to more than 20,000 litres, Der Spiegel reported.

The stockpile, which includes 65,000 cans of beer and 340 bottles of wine, had posed a peculiar problem for the German army's withdrawal plan. The beverages could not be sold locally due to laws banning alcohol consumption, nor destroyed due to environmental concerns.

A defence ministry spokeswomen told the BBC on Monday that they had found a civilian contractor to repatriate the drinks. 

The withdrawal of NATO troops from Afghanistan officially began on May 1. The decision followed US President Joe Biden's announcement that American forces would leave Afghanistan by the symbolic date of September 11. 

The German army plans to bring back all its soldiers, which currently number more than 1,100 in Afghanistan. Their mission in the country has been the most expensive and largest in the Bundeswehr’s history, according to DW.