SOME 44 Rwandan nationals were over the weekend evacuated from Egypt as political unrest in the north African country enters the third week.
Foreign affairs minister, Louise Mushikiwabo, said in a statement that most of those evacuated were Rwandan students and other citizens living in different parts of Egypt. They were flown home aboard a chartered aircraft.
“Due to the political unrest taking place in Egypt, we did not hesitate to reach out to Rwandan students in Alexandria and Cairo and our citizens in different parts of Egypt to assess their situation and organize their evacuation,” the minister said.
Violent protests have rocked Egypt since January 28th, with hundreds of thousands of protesters countrywide demanding that long-serving autocratic president, Hosni Mubarak leaves power.
The protests have resulted in the deaths of over 150 people and thousands injured, according to media reports.
Many countries, including the US, China and some EU states have evacuated their nationals as the demonstrations show no sign of relent. It is not the first time attempts have been made to evacuate Rwandan nationals facing danger in countries where violence has broken out.
In 2008, Rwanda mobilized evacuation of its citizens when post-election violence erupted in Kenya and later the attacks on foreigners in South Africa. At least 68 Rwandans, majority of them students, were known to live in Egypt before the evacuation.
