Yemen crisis: Foreigners' tales of escape

[Sally]

It appears that people from so many countries came to work in Yemen and now they have to get out because of the fighting.


Yemen crisis: Foreigners' tales of escape

• 2 April 2015
  

Thousands of foreign nationals have been trying to flee Yemen as fighting between Houthi-led rebels and pro-government forces escalate across the country.

Chinese, Indian, Pakistani and Indonesian citizens have been leaving on ships chartered by some of their governments as the main airports remain closed. The BBC has spoken to some of them and here are their stories.

Egypt
The Egyptian foreign ministry says 7,000 of its citizens have official entry stamps for Yemen but the Yemeni government estimates there could be as many as 17,000 Egyptians in the country.

Ahmed Sami, a communications engineer, has been based in Sanaa for four months on a work contract. He has left his accommodation, along with some Egyptian colleagues, for a safer place.

To read the other stories, go to:

Yemen crisis Foreigners tales of escape - BBC News

 

[Sunni Man]

It appears that people from so many countries came to work in Yemen and now they have to get out because of the fighting.


Yemen crisis: Foreigners' tales of escape

• 2 April 2015

Thousands of foreign nationals have been trying to flee Yemen as fighting between Houthi-led rebels and pro-government forces escalate across the country.

Chinese, Indian, Pakistani and Indonesian citizens have been leaving on ships chartered by some of their governments as the main airports remain closed. The BBC has spoken to some of them and here are their stories.

Egypt
The Egyptian foreign ministry says 7,000 of its citizens have official entry stamps for Yemen but the Yemeni government estimates there could be as many as 17,000 Egyptians in the country.

Ahmed Sami, a communications engineer, has been based in Sanaa for four months on a work contract. He has left his accommodation, along with some Egyptian colleagues, for a safer place.

To read the other stories, go to:

Yemen crisis Foreigners tales of escape - BBC News

Oy vey!! .....

 

[waltky]

Egypt gettin' in on the action...

Egypt sends up to 800 ground troops to Yemen's war : Egyptian security sources
Sep 9, 2015: As many as 800 Egyptian soldiers arrived in Yemen late on Tuesday, Egyptian security sources said, swelling the ranks of a Gulf Arab military contingent which aims to rout the Iran-allied Houthi group after a five-month civil war.

It was the first reported deployment of ground troops there by Egypt, which has one of the Arab world's strongest armies. A coalition led by Saudi Arabia has scored major gains against the militia and its allies in Yemen's army, backing a push by Yemeni fighters to seize much of the country's south and now setting its sights on the Houthi-controlled capital Sanaa. Four Egyptian units of between 150 to 200 troops along with tanks and transport vehicles arrived in Yemen late on Tuesday, two Egyptian security sources said. "We have sent these forces as part of Egypt's prominent role in this alliance ... the alliance fights for the sake of our brotherly Arab states, and the death of any Egyptian soldier would be an honour and considered martyrdom for the sake of innocent people," a senior Egyptian military source said.

Yemeni officials put the number of foreign troops from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar at least around 2,000, while Qatari-owned Al Jazeera TV said at least 10,000 foreign soldiers had arrived, including 1,000 from the emirate. They are part of a force preparing to eventually assault the capital, which the Houthis seized last year. The alliance sees the campaign as a fight against the influence of arch-rival Iran in their neighbourhood, but the Houthis say they are fighting a revolution against a corrupt government, which they drove into Saudi exile in late March. More than 4,500 people have been killed by fighting and air strikes since the beginning of the conflict, which has also unleashed disease and hunger in the impoverished country.

Brigadier General Ahmed al-Asseri, a spokesman for the coalition, told Reuters its forces were focusing on overcoming Houthi resistance in Yemen's central and southern provinces, pounding their positions from the air across the country before beginning any thrust towards Sanaa. "Before you start the ground operation, you have to have the prerequisite of the air campaign," al-Asseri said. "I don't want to talk about Sanaa because the military issue is in phases ... Now we are talking of Marib and Taiz."

Residents reported heavy air raids on military bases throughout Sanaa on Wednesday, the latest in a series of daily assaults which fishermen said killed 20 Indian nationals off a Red Sea port on Tuesday. At least 15 other civilians were killed throughout the country on Tuesday, medics said. The alliance has increased air strikes on Sanaa and other parts of Yemen since Friday, when a Houthi missile attack killed at least 60 Saudi, Bahraini and United Arab Emirates soldiers at a military camp in central Marib province.

Egypt sends up to 800 ground troops to Yemen's war : Egyptian security sources - The Times of India

See also:

20 Indians killed in Saudi-led air strike in Yemen, MEA ascertaining reports Sep 8, 2015: Twenty Indians died in a Saudi-led coalition air strike on oil smugglers in Yemen, Reuters reported late on Tuesday.

MEA was yet to confirm until late in the night if those killed were indeed Indians. India shut down its embassy in Yemen earlier this year, a fallout of the civil war which has engulfed the nation since the Iran- backed Houthi rebels seized capital Sanaa. All Indians willing to leave the country had been evacuated. "We are ascertaining the facts about the reports," MEA spokesman Vikas Swarup said when asked about reports that 20 Indians had been killed in Saudi-led strikes in Yemen. The Houthi-run state news agency Saba also said that 15 citizens were killed in air strikes on Sanaa, and medical sources said at least 15 civilians were killed in similar attacks on Monday. It was not immediately possible to independently verify the figures.

The alliance, made up mainly of Gulf Arab countries, has increased air strikes on Sanaa and other parts of the country since Friday, when a Houthi missile attack killed at least 60 Saudi, Bahraini and United Arab Emirates soldiers at a military camp east of Sanaa. They were part of a force preparing to assault the capital, which the Iranian-allied Houthis seized last September. Friday's attack was the deadliest yet for Gulf soldiers in the war and may herald a turning point as Saudi-allied countries appear to be committing to a ground war they had so far avoided. In western Yemen, local residents and fishermen said planes from the Saudi-led alliance struck two boats at al-Khokha, a small port near Hodeidah used by Indians to smuggle badly needed fuel supplies into the country, killing 20 of them. Officials were not immediately available to comment on the report.

Qatari-owned Al Jazeera TV reported that the number of forces deployed by the alliance had risen to 10,000. A Yemeni military official denied any foreign reinforcements had arrived on Tuesday and a source close to the exiled Yemeni government, now based in Riyadh, said he believed the number of foreign troops reported by al Jazeera might be exaggerated. Al Jazeera on Monday said that 1,000 Qatari soldiers had crossed the al-Wadia border crossing from Saudi Arabia. "A second contingent of Qatari soldiers has entered the al-Wadia border crossing," an Al Jazeera correspondent in southern Saudi Arabia was quoted as saying.

Bombing, air power