Last night in Kabul, the United States ended 20 years of war in Afghanistan, the longest

war in American history.

I'm Aisha Roscoe and this is the Sunday story.

It's been nearly two years since the U.S. withdrew all troops from Afghanistan on August

30 of 2021.

The final days of evacuation at the Kabul Airport were chaotic and heartbreaking.

Deadly scenes of panic at the airport, thousands of Afghans now scrambling to get out.

When those last U.S. military planes departed, thousands of vulnerable people were left behind.

But in the weeks that followed August 30, the evacuation efforts continued.

These were efforts arranged by private individuals and non-government groups.

Often they involved overland routes past Taliban checkpoints to an airport in the northern

city of Missouri Sharif.

Evacuys boarded chartered planes and arrived in the U.S. via military bases in the Middle

East.

Now, over 97,000 Afghans have been brought to the U.S. through a variety of government

programs.

But a majority of Afghan refugees admitted to the U.S. came on a program called humanitarian

parole.

Those were Afghans who believed they would be targets of the new Taliban government.

Activists who had worked on behalf of women's rights or human rights, journalists, artists

and university students, and also young women who feared their lives would change dramatically

under Taliban rule.

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