Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said on Friday that the ministry was expecting the arrival of 643 Indonesians who had been evacuated from Yemen. They will travel by commercial flight, Indonesian Air Force aircraft and a rented plane in four batches.

'€œToday [Friday], we will try to use an Indian warship to go to Aden [in Yemen] and we will try to open a passage so we can carry Indonesians and people from other countries,'€ she said on Friday as quoted by Antara news agency.

The number of Indonesians to be evacuated out of Aden amounted to 111. They would be evacuated along with 250 Indians, 67 Malaysians and 4 Thais.

According to the evacuation plan, the Indian warship, which could carry 500 passengers, would arrive in Aden by Friday night local time, even though there were other possibilities with the ever changing situation in Aden.

'€œAgain, for the highly dynamic nature of the situation, we still can'€™t ensure it will go as planned,'€ she said after an evacuation coordination meeting. The agreement with India was made after a call with Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj.

According to data from the Foreign Ministry's directorate for legal aid and protection for Indonesian nationals abroad, around 1,800 Indonesians are ready to be evacuated while there are 1,000 unregistered citizens in Yemen, most of who live in Tareem and Al Mukalla cities. The government has evacuated 775 Indonesians so far.

There had been 4,159 Indonesians in Yemen, consisting of 2,626 students, 1,488 professionals and 45 embassy staff and their family members before evacuations began. (fsu)(+++)

Popular

Indonesian workers in Japan face growing stigma after viral incidents

Trump gets his way on tariffs, but global trade system intact for now

Severe fuel shortage hits Jember following closure of vital road for renovation