China helps evacuate 279 foreign citizens from Yemen

BEIJING - China has helped evacuate a total of 279 foreigners, aside from 629 Chinese nationals, from restive Yemen since it launched on March 29 the massive evacuation mission, which ended on Tuesday, according to the Chinese embassy in Yemen.

The Chinese naval vessel Weishanhu carrying nine Chinese nationals and one Japanese citizen arrived at Oman's Salalah port on Tuesday, marking the end of the mission.

The Weishanhu vessel, which, together with another Chinese naval vessel Linyi, was responsible for evacuating the last batch of Chinese nationals and remaining staff of the Chinese embassy in Yemen.

Earlier in the day, the Linyi vessel carrying 83 Chinese arrived at the Port of Djibouti. At the request of the Sri Lankan government, 45 Sri Lankans were also on board.

On April 2, at the request of 10 countries, the Chinese government helped evacuate 225 foreign citizens, including 176 Pakistanis, 29 Ethiopians, five Singaporeans, four Poles, three Italians, three Germans, two Britons, one Canadian, one Irish and one Yemeni.

At the end of last month, Chinese warships also helped withdraw eight nationals of Romania, India and Egypt while evacuating Chinese citizens.