How many people have been evacuated from Afghanistan?

At one point in the final days of evacuations from Afghanistan, flights were said to be taking off every twenty minutes from Kabul airport.

United States officials said “core” diplomatic staff had withdrawn from the country marking the final hours of its chaotic withdrawal.

A number of countries had been in a race against time to get vulnerable Afghans and their own citizens out ahead of the 31 August deadline.

The combined effort has led to more than a hundred thousand people being flown out of the country since 14 August, the day before the Taliban seized control of Kabul, the White House has said.

Here, Sky News looks at the global evacuation efforts.

Coalition nations have halted their evacuations in recent days, including Britain which ended its 20-year military campaign in Afghanistan on Sunday.

The US military is now largely the only force operating evacuation flights, with some remaining allied Afghan forces providing security at the airport.

The Pentagon said 1,200 people were evacuated on 26 US military aircrafts on Sunday, bringing the total number of people rescued to more than 122,000.

The UK evacuated 15,000 people from Kabul in a fortnight – including 5,000 British nationals and more than 8,000 Afghans who worked for the UK and their families, as well as many highly vulnerable people.

Among those fleeing were approximately 2,200 children who have now been taken to safety – the youngest of whom was just one day old.

Speaking shortly after arriving back in the UK, the British ambassador to Afghanistan Sir Laurie Bristow said his embassy will operate from Qatar “for the time being”, but he and his staff will return to Kabul “as soon as we can”.

Nearly 40% of all evacuees were moved out via Qatar. The Middle Eastern country of just 300,000 people said a little more than 43,000 people had transited through the nation.

Nearby countries, like Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, also accepted several thousand evacuees to alleviate pressure on US bases in the region. However, most Afghans are likely to permanently settle in other countries.

Although the Taliban has promised amnesty to all those who remain in Afghanistan, civil society activists, those who had worked for Western armies as translators and women afraid to lose hard-won rights say they do not trust the militants.

British Afghan Najib Afzali, whose family worked with the Afghan government and British and US troops, said his home in Afghanistan had been ransacked by members of the Taliban all because of their previous work.

Foreign Office Minister James Cleverly has told Sky News it is “impossible” to say how many people are left in Afghanistan who are eligible to come to Britain.

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He said the UK government hoped to work with the Taliban to ensure the safe passage of Afghans out of the country.

Even as the last remaining American personnel are due to leave Afghanistan on Tuesday, the International Rescue Committee has estimated that nearly 300,000 Afghan civilians face severe risks from the Taliban.

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