Japan evacuated its citizens stranded in conflict-torn Sudan aboard a Self-Defense Forces plane Monday, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said, while some Japanese were transported in operations by foreign governments.
The SDF plane airlifted 45 Japanese residents and their families from Port Sudan in the country's northeast to Djibouti, Kishida said, adding that several Japanese remained in Sudan wishing to evacuate.
Four other Japanese nationals have moved to Djibouti and Ethiopia thanks to the cooperation of France and the International Committee of the Red Cross, Kishida told reporters at his official residence in Tokyo.
Kishida said South Korea, the United Arab Emirates and the United Nations also offered to help evacuate Japanese nationals from Sudan and expressed his gratitude to them.
"I will do my utmost to ensure a quick evacuation (of Japanese nationals) while communicating continuously with relevant countries," Kishida said.
Shunsuke Takei, senior vice foreign minister of Japan, arrived in Djibouti to meet the Japanese evacuees and help arrange their flights back to Japan, according to the Japanese government.
Three Air Self-Defense Force aircraft had arrived in Djibouti by Sunday, about 1,200 kilometers southeast of Sudan's capital Khartoum, in preparation for evacuating Japanese nationals.
There were no reports of any injuries among the Japanese, including embassy staff, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told a press conference Monday in Tokyo.
France, meanwhile, said that two Japanese nationals were among nearly 400 people transported out of the African country aboard French military aircraft.
In Sudan, fighting between military and paramilitary forces continues to escalate.
Although Sudan's armed forces and the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group appeared to have agreed on a 72-hour cease-fire through Monday, clashes have continued in the capital and elsewhere.
The fighting has prompted a scramble as many countries seek to remove their remaining nationals from Sudan.
Italy is evacuating hundreds of people, including other foreign nationals, while Germany has started transporting more than 300 citizens, according to media reports.
Related coverage:
Some Japanese nationals start evacuating from Sudan amid conflict
2 more SDF planes leave Japan to prepare for Sudan evacuation
