Governments Send Planes to Evacuate Citizens From Egypt

(VOA) — Several governments say they are making arrangements to evacuate foreign citizens from Egypt as anti-government protests raged in that nation for a sixth day.Washington urged U.S. citizens Sunday to avoid travel to Egypt due to “ongoing social and political unrest” and offered to arrange flights to Europe for those who want to leave the country. The U.S. State Department also authorized the voluntary departure of family members of U.S. diplomats and non-emergency embassy personnel.

Other nations sent planes to Egypt Sunday to evacuate foreign citizens who wish to leave. Those nations include Azerbaijan, India, Iraq, Japan and Turkey.

Nationals of Britain, France and China were urged to avoid non-essential travel to Egypt, but their governments did not announce plans for evacuations. Pakistan said it was monitoring the situation to decide whether or not to evacuate about 150 Pakistani families.

Russia’s tourism agency told Russian news agency Interfax most of the more than 25,000 Russian tourists staying at Egyptian seaside resorts do not plan to cut short their holidays despite the protests. But Belgian travel agency Jetair said it plans to evacuate all of its customers in Egypt.

There were chaotic scenes at Cairo’s airport Sunday as foreign nationals prepared to evacuate. But the road to the airport was clear at midday, with Egypt’s military patrolling it.

More than 100 people have been killed during protest violence since Tuesday.