DFA Evacuates 243 More Filipinos from Yemen
Houthi fighter outside the President’s House in Aden. AFP file photograph.
MANILA – The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) disclosed that it had evacuated a group of 243 Filipinos and one Yemeni national on Monday.
The group consisted of 111 males, 112 females and 21 minor children.
The lone Yemeni national in the group is the father of Filipino children.
This was the second batch of evacuees who traveled by land and were brought out of Yemen by the DFA Crisis Management Team (CMT) composed of personnel from the Philippine Embassy in Riyadh, Philippine Consulate General in Jeddah and the Philippine Honorary Consul’s Office in Sana’a, bringing the total number of Filipinos repatriated from Yemen to 342.
The group traveled in a convoy of five buses and was accompanied by Philippine Honorary Consul Mohammad Al Jamal.
They left the Yemeni capital city of Sana’a at 8:30 a.m. (Saudi time), taking a direct route through Hajjah, a mountain city in the northwest, and onwards to Harad, the last town before the border.
They arrived at the Tuwal-Jizan border crossing at 04:45 p.m. on the same day.
The 290-kilometer trip was safe and unimpeded, in spite of a few checkpoints along the way.
A third batch of 44 evacuees have started the land journey from the coastal city of Hodeidah, joined by the Philippine Honorary Consul Al Jamal and Philippine Embassy attache Mel Balladolid.
As the situation in Yemen remains volatile and uncertain, the DFA is reiterating its urgent call to the remaining Filipinos there to register with the CMT teams in Movenpick Hotel Sana’a and in Al-Sherif Hotel Hodeidah so that they can join what may be the last remaining land evacuation being scheduled in the coming days.
The CMT can be contacted through the following numbers: +967 73 019 4165 / +967 73 742 6292 /+967 73 384 4958 / +967 73 845 1828 and, via e-mail cmt-sanaa@riyadhpe.com.