Dozens of Egyptians return home in first evacuation through Algeria

Monday 02-03-2015 10:45 AM
Dozens of Egyptians return home in first evacuation through Algeria

Egyptian men wait to board their plane to return home, at the Gabes Matmata airport, south of Tunisia August 6, 2014.REUTERS/Stringer

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CAIRO, Mar 2 (Aswat Masriya) - A plane carrying 70 Egyptians who fled Libya landed in Egypt in the early hours of Monday, taking off from an airport in Algeria. 

Head of the national airline EgyptAir, Hesham al-Nahas said this is the "first flight" evacuating Egyptians through Algeria. 

An airport official said the evacuees entered Algeria through the al-Debdeb border crossing, which it shares with Libya, after the crossing was opened for them exceptionally on Sunday.

The evacuation of Egyptians from Libya comes after several Egyptian nationals were caught up in the unprecedented violence gripping the neighbouring country.

Previous flights evacuating Egyptians have taken off from a Tunisian airport.

The majority have, however, fled the restive neighbour by directly crossing into Egypt through the Salloum border crossing on the Libyan-Egyptians borders.

As of Friday, 25,529 Egyptians had returned home, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said

Egyptians began evacuating last month, after a video surfaced showing the beheadings of 20 Egyptian nationals and another man, who is not believed to be Egyptian.  

Egypt's air force launched coordinated airstrikes on militant targets in Libya last week in response to the beheadings. 

This is the second evacuation of Egyptians from Libya, within the past year. The Aviation Ministry created an emergency airlift with Tunisia last July to transport Egyptians stranded on the Libyan borders with Tunisia back home.

Egyptian authorities issued a ban on any travel to Libya in January. 

In a visit last week, Libyan Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thinni stressed his country's "full coordination" with Egypt in facing "armed terrorist groups". 

Libyan capital Tripoli has fallen under the control of the Fajr Libya or Libya Dawn Islamist militia in August 2014.

Meanwhile, Egypt and the international community only recognise authorities based in the eastern Libyan city of Tobruk.  

After launching the airstrikes, Egypt started endeavours to rally the international community behind backing a draft resolution at the United Nations Security Council to lift an arms embargo on Thinni's government.

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