REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi called on the warring parties in Yemen to impose a ceasefire to give time for the evacuation of civilians out of Yemen.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a press statement here on Sunday that the Indonesian government could use the truce to speedily evacuate its citizens (WNI) who were still staying in Yemen.
According to the foreign ministry, the security conditions in Yemen, particularly around the Aden and Sana'a cities are deteriorating. 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 carry out 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 warring parties to restrain and pay attention to civilians, both Yemeni and foreign citizens.
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.
Since the evacuation process started in December 2014, a total of 792 Indonesian citizens have been evacuated from Yemen and up to now 590 WNIs have repatriated to Indonesia.
The remaining 202 are taken to safer regions, namely Jizan, Saudi Arabia and Djibouti.
A number of Indonesian citizens are still accommodated in safe houses in Yemen, pending evacuation,namely 89 in Aden, 14 in Sana'a, 40 in Al Mukalla and 58 in Tareem.
Air Force Chief of Staff Marshal Agus Supriatna and Deputy Foreign Minister A.M. Fachir, on Thursday night, bid farewell to a team of personnel who will evacuate Indonesian citizens from war-torn Yemen.
"This night, we saw off a rescue task force team to evacuate Indonesian citizens in Yemen," Supriatna stated at the Halim Perdanakusuma Air Base in East Jakarta.
The team comprises 16 personnel of the National Defense Forces (TNI) and six officials of the Foreign Ministry. They left for Yemen on board an Indonesian Air Force (TNI AU) Boeing 737-600 aircraft.
The Air Force Chief of Staff remarked that the task force team would evacuate Indonesian citizens to the safe area of Salalah in Oman.
"We will first evacuate them to the safest place (in Yemen) before they are flown to Oman. Soon after they have arrived in Oman, we will evaluate the citizens to the safest among the three locations there," he said.
Foreign Minister Retno LP 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.
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