All Japanese who wished to evacuate from conflict-torn Sudan's capital have left the African country, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Tuesday, as a new 72-hour cease-fire between the Sudanese military and paramilitary forces took effect after days of intense fighting.
In addition to 45 people comprising Japanese and foreign family members who had departed on a Self-Defense Forces plane Monday, eight others also comprising Japanese and foreign family members left Sudan on Tuesday from a military base north of Khartoum in cooperation with the French government, completing the evacuation, Kishida said.
"The government will make utmost efforts to provide necessary support to Japanese nationals residing in Sudan and to ensure their safety by coordinating closely with relevant governments" through an office set up in Djibouti, Kishida told reporters at his office.
Later Tuesday, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno, said at a press conference that one Japanese citizen who wishes to evacuate from Sudan remains in the southern part of the country, where the situation is relatively stable.
The top government spokesman, meanwhile, said several Japanese are still staying in Sudan as they do not wish to leave the country for various reasons, adding the government is keeping in touch with them and that they have no health issues.
The Foreign Ministry said it temporarily closed Japan's embassy in Sudan after all of its staff members left the nation.
After the 45 people -- 41 Japanese nationals and four family members who hold foreign citizenship -- transferred from Khartoum to Port Sudan in the country's northeast by land, the SDF plane airlifted them to Djibouti.
Prior to that, four other Japanese nationals and one non-Japanese family member had arrived in Djibouti and Ethiopia with the cooperation of France and the International Red Cross, the Japanese government said.
Those who arrived in Djibouti have no major health problems, although they appeared tired, Matsuno said. He added U.S., Canadian and Sudanese nationals were among those who fled with Japanese citizens, without clarifying the numbers by country.
France said that two Japanese nationals were among nearly 400 people transported from Sudan aboard a French military aircraft.
As the fighting continued to escalate in Sudan, many countries scrambled to evacuate their nationals.
Italy was evacuating hundreds of people, including other foreign nationals, while Germany had started transporting more than 300 of its citizens, according to media reports.
The latest cease-fire between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, brokered by the United States, came into effect midnight Monday.
