Japan evacuates 45 nationals from Sudan, closes embassy

Japan has evacuated 45 nationals and their spouses from Sudan, and temporarily closed its embassy, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and officials said Tuesday.

"A total of 45 people took off from eastern Sudan for Djibouti in the C2 transport aircraft dispatched" by Japanese troops, Kishida told reporters in the early hours of Tuesday.

He said four other Japanese had also been able to travel from Sudan to Djibouti and Ethiopia with help from France and international organizations.

Hours later, Kishida added that another eight Japanese had left from Sudan, also with French help.

"With this, evacuation of all Japanese who had been in Khartoum hoping to evacuate by yesterday... including embassy members, has been completed," he told reporters.

Japan's foreign minister said in a statement that the embassy was now temporarily closed after staff members were evacuated.

It has set up a liaison office in Djibouti to continue helping remaining Japanese in Sudan to evacuate, the ministry said.

Japan had said it had roughly 60 citizens in Sudan when it decided to evacuate them from chaos-torn Sudan. — Agence France-Presse