Evacuation of Kenyans Stranded in Yemen

The evacuation of Kenyans stranded in Yemen following the ongoing raging conflict in that country has begun in earnest.

On Friday, 16 Kenyans were airlifted from capital Sanaa in a chartered plane that had dropped six government officials that are helping in the evacuation exercise. The first batch arrived at the Wilson airport on Saturday morning.

The Government has opened three processing points that stranded Kenyans are being assisted through. These include Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, Salala in Oman and Sanaa via Djibouti.

 Nine people left Jeddah yesterday in a scheduled flight to Nairobi while 27 others were expected to leave Salala later in the day through the same means.

 In Sanaa, which is the epicentre of the civil strife, the government officials led by Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Director of Administration, Mr Henry Obino, has processed 250 evacuees and are awaiting for landing rights to be able to evacuate to neighbouring Djibouti for onward transfer to Nairobi. There has been a challenge in Sanaa related to landing rights where the airspace in controlled by Saudi Government while the airport is controlled by the Hauthi rebels.

The Government is doing everything possible to speedily evacuate Kenyans to safety of their country, according to director of Diaspora and Consular affairs Washington Oloo.

Mr Oloo said there were about 500 Kenyans so far affected but the number keeps changing.