France ended evacuation operations on Friday and its team at the makeshift French Embassy at Kabul's airport pulled up stakes. Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and Defence Minister Florence Parly announced that evacuations drew to a close with nearly 3,000 transferred out of Afghanistan.

'The team at France's embassy in Kabul reached Abu Dhabi before returning to France,' the statement said, suggesting that Ambassador David Martinon was returning home, too. A French base in Abu Dhabi has been the transit points for French evacuees before heading to Paris.