REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- The National Police will dispatch an evacuation task force on Wednesday, April 1, to Yemen to assist in the evacuation of Indonesian citizens out of the country due to the worsening situation there.

"The team will be dispatched tomorrow," Chief of the Public Information Bureau (Karopenmas) Brigadier General Agus Rianto said here on Tuesday.

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 fielded for at least 14 days, and their serving time will be adjusted in accordance with the development of the situation in Yemen," Rianto stated.

The seventh police team will be divided to aid two regions, namely Sana'a in Yemen and Salalah in Oman.

"For the first phase, the citizens may be accommodated in some embassies there," he noted.

Indonesia is intensifying efforts to evacuate its citizens out of Yemen due to the worsening situation in the country.

"Given the current condition, it is now time to step up the evacuation of our citizens in Yemen," Indonesian Foreign Affairs Minister Retno Marsudi said here recently.

She added that there are 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 said.

With regard to ways to evacuate and repatriate the Indonesian nationals, Minister Marsudi stated: "There are several options. We can transport 90 citizens from Sana'a to Al Hudaydah in half an hour. Other options include (evacuating them) via Oman and Saudi Arabia. If we opt for Oman, we can start from Salalah."

"As the situation is still dynamic, we will try to carry out the evacuation plan expeditiously," she affirmed.

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