T

he government has dispatched two teams to Yemen to help accelerate the evacuation of thousands of Indonesians residing in the Middle Eastern country, which has been engulfed by intense armed conflicts in recent weeks, says a Foreign Ministry official.

'€œThe teams comprise officials and personnel from the Foreign Ministry, the National Police, the Indonesian Air Force and other relevant institutions. They are going to depart today,'€ the ministry'€™s director for legal aid and the protection of Indonesian nationals overseas, Lalu Muhammad Iqbal, told a press conference on Wednesday.

He said he was optimistic the teams would be able to effectively locate and repatriate Indonesians in Yemen because of the experience of members of the teams.

'€œThey are the ones who helped evacuate Indonesians from Tripoli [Libya] and Damascus [Syria],'€ he said.

According to the ministry, there are currently around 4,100 Indonesians residing in Yemen, mostly migrant workers and students.

Iqbal said that the first team, consisting of 15 people, would enter Yemen through Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, while the second would cross the border via Oman. '€œBut everything is still dynamic and may change according to the actual situation on the ground,'€ he said.

By the time he delivered the press conference, there were 309 Indonesians being evacuated using 16 ground vehicles, Iqbal said.

'€œThe options to evacuate via air and sea are still there. The Air Force has been on standby. A no-fly zone has just been lifted but we never know until when it will last,'€ he said.

Ministry spokesman Arrmanatha Nasir added that the Indonesians would not be repatriated directly to Indonesia. The government would use Salalah in Oman as a base for the teams, he said. '€œSalalah has a good international airport. The city is safe and not too busy because Oman is currently a stable country.'€

Indonesian Military (TNI) commander Gen. Moeldoko previously said that his force had already been readied for the evacuation.

'€œIf the President asked us to go to Yemen right now, we are ready,'€ he said on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Reuters reported an explosion at a dairy factory in Yemen'€™s Hodaida port killed at least 25 workers, medical sources said, with conflicting accounts attributing the blast to an air strike by a Saudi-led alliance or to a rocket landing from a nearby army base.

The incident would appear to be one of the biggest cases of civilian deaths since a Saudi-led coalition began an air campaign against Houthi militia on March 26.

A website of Yemen'€™s factionalized army, which mostly sides with the Houthis, said 37 workers were killed and 80 wounded at the dairy and oils factory '€œduring the aggressive air strikes which targeted the two factories last night.'€

Medical sources in the city said 25 workers at the plant had been killed at the factory, which was located near an army camp loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, a Houthi ally.

Residents and witnesses contacted by Reuters said the air strikes had targeted the factory shortly after midnight on Wednesday. Others said rockets fired from the base '€” possibly as retaliation against the bombings '€” hit the factory.

The operation by Saudi Arabia and other Sunni Muslim states aims to prevent the Houthis and former Saleh from winning control of the country. They instead want to reinstate Saudi-backed President Abde Rabbo Mansour Hadi.