REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi welcomed 110 Indonesian citizens (WNI) who arrived at Soekarno-Hatta airport here on Sunday evening after being evacuated from Yemen.
According to the Foreign Affairs Ministry's press statement here on Sunday, the 100 WNIs arrived in the first batch out of the 622 WNIs who were successfully evacuated from Yemen to Jizan, Saudi Arabia several days ago.
The remaining WNIs will be picked up by an Air Force's plane in Jizan to be flown to Oman from where they will be flown by a commercial flight to Indonesia.
The foreign ministry said that the security conditions in Yemen, particularly around the Aden and Sana'a cities are worsening. The armed clashes among the conflicting parties are escalating.
These conditions posed difficulties to the efforts to evacuate the Indonesian citizens there, thus forcing the team to follow special scenarios for the evacuation process.
After all, the evacuation team has to make the evacuation on a fast, safe and efficient basis.
Regarding the latest conditions in Yemen, the Indonesian government expressed concern over the fall of victims again on the part of civilians.
The Indonesian government calls on the waring parties to restrain and pay attention to civilians, both Yemeni and foreign citizens.
TNI Chief General Moeldoko earlier stated that the Boeing 373-600 would evacuate thousands of Indonesians out of Yemen to a temporary command post in Saudi Arabia. Moreover, the Indonesians are gathered, they would be repatriated to Indonesia by commercial flights.
Moeldoko said the TNI team would also evacuate Indonesian citizens in Yemen by sea.
"Some of them are staying around Aden Bay. They must be evacuated by ship to Djibouti from where they will be repatriated by plane. We have coordinated with the Indian government and related parties," he revealed.
Foreign Minister Retno L.P. Marsudi earlier stated that there were some 4,159 citizens in Yemen, including 2,626 students, 1,488 professional workers in oil and gas companies, and 45 embassy staff and their families in Sana'a.
"Most of them live in the eastern regions of Yemen," she pointed out.
According to the minister, the Indonesian government, through the evacuation task force set up by her office, had informed and approached citizens in Yemen to register themselves for evacuation since February.
A total of 148 citizens had been evacuated and brought back to Indonesia in March, she affirmed.
On Wednesday, the National Police also dispatched an evacuation task force to Yemen to assist in the evacuation of Indonesians out of the country.
The evacuation task force, which comprises five policemen and two policewomen, is a combination of personnel from several units of the Police Headquarters, such as the International Relations Division (Divhubinter), the Security Maintenance Agency (Baharkam), the Intelligence and Security Agency, the Police Education Institute (Lemdikpol), and the Police Medical Team.
"They will be deployed for at least 14 days, and their service period will be adjusted in accordance with the developing situation in Yemen," Chief of the Public Information Bureau (Karopenmas) Brigadier General Agus Rianto stated on Tuesday.
Ikuti Whatsapp Channel Republika