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Egypt evacuates citizens from Libya

February 23, 2015 at 3:19 pm

Egypt is evacuating citizens out of Libya through Tunisia’s Djerba–Zarzis International Airport, an Egyptian source said.

The official, who refused to be named, told the Anadolu Agency that “as many as 350 Egyptians crossed on Sunday to Tunisia through the Ras Jedir crossing in order to be evacuated to Cairo via the Djerba-Zarzis International Airport.”

The Anadolu Agency reporter said that four buses transported more than 200 Egyptians to Djerba-Zarzis International Airport while another bus was waiting at the Ras Ajdir crossing to transport more Egyptians.

Meanwhile, an official source at Cairo International Airport said yesterday that than Egypt Air flight left the airport heading to Tunisia’s Djerba airport to transport 319 Egyptians fleeing the conflict in Libya.

According to the same source, this is the second journey by the Egyptian company to return Egyptians from Libya via Tunisia after an airplane carrying 192 Egyptians landed on Friday.

The Egyptian Ministry of Civil Aviation said in earlier statement that there was “an ongoing follow-up with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to estimate the number of Egyptians waiting on the Libyan-Tunisian border to coordinate the number of flights needed to carry them back home.”

On January 20, the Egyptian authorities issued a ban on travel to Libya due to the security situation there.

Last week, militants affiliated with the Islamic State (ISIS) released a video allegedly showing the killing of 21 Egyptian Copts in Libya.

The Egyptian army responded by bombing suspected ISIS sites in the city of Darnah.