Germany has pledged to admit 25,000 Afghans deemed most at risk following the Islamic Emirate if Afghanistan (IEA) takeover in Kabul from about 40,000 such people that European Union states are to accept, according to a letter by a senior EU official.

Germany had a record number of almost 900,000 people seeking refuge on its soil in 2015, most of them coming from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq.

In a letter dated Dec. 9 and seen by Reuters on Friday, EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson called on member states to make good on all their resettlement promises by the end of 2022.

“Vulnerable people and refugees at risk are awaiting their departure to start a new life in safety and dignity,” she said.

As well as the 25,000 refugees that Germany will take in, the Netherlands agreed to admit more than 3,100 Afghans whose life and safety is now seen most at risk. France and Spain will take in 2,500 people, followed by 2,000 who will head to Sweden, according to the document.

Western countries evacuated more than 120,000 Afghans in a hastily arranged airlift in August as the IEA took over Kabul, bringing a two-decades long U.S.-led military mission to the country to a chaotic end.

Taliban militants in Pakistan declared an end to a month-long ceasefire arranged with the aid of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA), accusing the government of breaching terms including a prisoner release agreement and the formation of negotiating committees.

The Pakistani Taliban, or Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), are a separate movement from the IEA and have fought for years to overthrow the government in Islamabad and rule with their own brand of Islamic Sharia law.

Last month’s ceasefire, which was always set to run until Thursday with the possibility of extending if both parties agreed, was the latest in a series of attempts to broker a settlement to end a conflict that has killed thousands.

The IEA shock overthrow of the Western-backed government in August gave the talks fresh impetus but the TTP accused Islamabad of failing to respect the ceasefire agreement.

It said the government had not released more than 100 prisoners as promised and had not appointed negotiating teams to conduct talks. It also said security forces had carried out raids while the ceasefire was in force.

“Now let the Pakistani people decide whether it is the TTP or the Pakistani army and establishment that is not abiding by the agreements?” the group said in a statement.

“In these circumstances, it is not possible to advance the ceasefire,” it said.

Best known in the West for attacking Malala Yousafzai, the schoolgirl who went on to win the Nobel Prize for her work promoting girls’ education, the TTP has killed thousands of military personnel and civilians over the years in bombings and suicide attacks.

Among its attacks was a 2014 assault on a military-run school in Peshawar, near the border with Afghanistan, which killed 149 people including 132 children.

The number of journalists worldwide who are behind bars reached a global high in 2021, according to a new report from the nonprofit Committee to Protect Journalists, which says that 293 reporters were imprisoned as of December 1 this year.

At least 24 journalists were killed because of their coverage, and 18 others died in circumstances that make it too difficult to determine whether they were targeted because of their work, the CPJ said on Thursday in its annual survey on press freedom and attacks on the media.

While the reasons for jailing reporters varies between countries, the record number reflects political upheaval around the world and a growing intolerance of independent reporting, according to the CPJ.

“This is the sixth year in a row that CPJ has documented record numbers of journalists imprisoned around the world,” said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon in a statement. “The number reflects two inextricable challenges – governments are determined to control and manage information, and they are increasingly brazen in their efforts to do so.”

China imprisoned 50 journalists, the most of any country, followed by Myanmar (26), which arrested reporters as part of a crackdown after its February 1 military coup, then Egypt (25), Vietnam (23) and Belarus (19), the CPJ said.