Among the roughly 200 American citizens who are still trapped in Afghanistan, 29 are elementary school students from California, according to the Washington Free Beacon.
As previously reported, the San Juan Unified School District (SJUSD) in Sacramento, California, had confirmed in a written statement that approximately two dozen of its students were among the Americans stranded in the fallen nation, which is now under the control of the Taliban, a radical Islamic terror group.
SJUSD’s district director of communications, Raj Rai, further clarified the exact number of students in a follow-up statement. Rai confirmed that the district “currently has 29 students, from 19 families, in Afghanistan.” He added that the district “stands ready to support these students and families in whatever way we can.” The district reported that when Afghanistan first fell in mid-August, there were 32 students from the district in the war-torn country, but three students had manage to escape within the last few days.
The district has been in close contact with the office of Congressman Ami Bera (D-Calif.), who represents the district where the school is located. Bera said that his office has reached out to the White House, the Department of Defense, and the State Department, but has not yet heard back from any of these departments on the status of the children.
The Pentagon formally declared the War in Afghanistan to be over on August 30th, after the last American military flight departed the country. Despite Joe Biden and other administration officials declaring that the evacuation process has been a success, the plight of the over 200 Americans left behind in the country has led to another wave of widespread criticism, from both sides of the political aisle and around the world.
“American citizens are stranded behind enemy lines,” Congressman Chris Stewart (R-Utah) said on Wednesday. “And President Biden has no plan to bring them home. This evacuation will forever be remembered as a historically shameful time in our nation’s history, no matter how much the White House wants to spin it otherwise.”