In just the last 24 hours as of Wednesday, August 25th, NATO forces have managed to get 19,000 people out of Kabul on over 90 Afghanistan evacuation flights. These military cargo planes have been taking off at a rate of one every 39 minutes, following the reestablishment of order at the airport amid recent refugee chaos.
4,400 U.S. citizens and their families have also been flown out of Afghanistan as of this time. Despite the progress, several thousand more Americans are still believed to be waiting for flights, alongside many more Afghan citizens.
These are just some of the statistics disclosed by the U.S. State Department in recent briefings.
Over the past week, the U.S. Military and its coalition partners have significantly ramped up their emergency evacuation services for thousands of desperate individuals.
Improved organization has helped manage the process, and despite chaotic scenes at Hamid Karzai International Airport, allied nations’ humanitarian airlift operations have led to 82,300 people being safely evacuated since August 14th.
Since late July, the total number of people evacuated has reached 87,900, a clear testament to the growing scale and urgency of Afghanistan evacuation flights. Among those rescued were 4,400 U.S. nationals.
As of Wednesday, August 25th, the Pentagon confirmed that 10,000 people were still waiting for flights from Kabul’s airport. It’s believed that several thousand additional Americans remain scattered across the country. The Biden administration has yet to announce an exact number of planned evacuations ahead of the firm August 31st deadline.
To facilitate these evacuations, the U.S. Government has activated large-scale corporate air charter operations. U.S. carriers like American Airlines, Delta, and Hawaiian Airlines have been contracted to transport evacuees from military bases to temporary safe havens in other countries.
Although many NATO allies and members of President Biden’s own party have called for an extension of the evacuation deadline, the president maintains that “We are currently on pace to finish by August the 31st.”
Even so, Biden confirmed that the Pentagon and State Department have been instructed to prepare contingency plans in case more time is needed.
Further complicating matters, reports have surfaced of two U.S. lawmakers visiting Kabul to observe the evacuation firsthand. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby stated he was unaware of such visits and emphasized that VIP arrivals could disrupt the sensitive security operations underway.
The Taliban’s rapid takeover of Afghanistan has caught the international community off-guard. With the collapse of the coalition-backed Afghan military, hundreds of flights—military, government, and private air charters—have been deployed to evacuate U.S. citizens, Afghan allies, and other civilians before time runs out.
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