kabul for various staging bases. 66 flights left out of kabul yesterday in the 24-hour period with 6,800 evacuees. today, i can report an updated total evacuation that is more than 117,000. the vast majority of which are afghans. of this total number, approximately 5,400 are american citizens. this is an incredible number of people who are now safer thanks to the heroism of the young men and women who are putting their lives on the line each day to evacuate american and vulnerable afghans out of kabul. threats to our forces and to this operation remain real and significant. i m sure you can appreciate that. now, with the military mission beginning to end in kabul, thousands of service members are working across the globe and within the united states to complete this incredibly
sad and desperate though they may be, and we are used to reaching out to people that are in need and really want to start a new life here. so i think, you know, just that one little base in texas is one small example. i think you re going to see that all over the country, and again, that s one of the great things about living in this country, and i think these afghans, that will be something they take away too. tell me about something that you have received lots of hard questions about all last week and over the weekend and today, which is the issue of safe passage out. obviously, getting control of the airport, getting control of the tarmac, getting control of the runway, lining up these staging bases for onward movement, as you were describing. all of that we have seen the military sort of systematically get that in order and we have siultaneously see the number of evacuees rise to this incredible number of almost 11,000 in one 24-hour period between sunday and today. but there is
americans are a generous lot. and we are an immigrant nation. we are used to these stories, the sat in desperate as they may be, we are used to reaching out to people that are in need. in really want to start a new life here. i think that just that one little thing in texas, it s just one small example. you re going to see that all over the country. again that s a great thing about living in this country. these afghans, that will be something they take away too. tell me about something you have received all last weekend in over the weekend in today, which is the issue of safe passage out. obviously, getting control of the airport, getting control of the tarmac, getting control of the runway. lining up these staging bases, for onward movement as you re describing. all of that, we have seen the military sort of systematically get in order, and we have simultaneously seen the number of evacuees rise, to nearly
let s just talk about bottlenecks. i talked about that a little earlier. those that depart kabul and get to those staging bases, that s the coordination i was talking about earlier, to ensuring that we place, you know, evacuees in one of those bottlenecks, so the increased through put they are able to hold there, with the joint staff in that trance com, as we look as those at kabul, there s no constraint of
questions about all last week and over the weekend and today, which is the issue of safe passage out. obviously, getting control of the airport, getting control of the tarmac, getting control of the runway, lining up these staging bases for onward movement, as you were describing. all of that we have seen the military sort of systematically get that in order and we have simultaneously see the number of evacuees rise to this incredible number of almost 11,000 in one 24-hour period between sunday and today. but there is still the front end issue of how people get themselves into that safe system. how people get into the airport, how not just americans but people linked to the u.s. government, people who are afghan evacuees who we are going to otherwise prioritize how they are going to get out. tell me big picture progress toward making more safe that part of their journey. so, there s a couple of pieces here. you may have heard me talk about this a little bit ago. we are in constant da