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▼ SDF To Evacuate Japanese Citizens From Sudan As Conflict Rages
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Japan has begun operations to evacuate Japanese nationals from Sudan amid the growing conflict in the country, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said Wednesday.
The government will send Self-Defense Forces personnel to evacuate Japanese citizens, the top government spokesman said in an unscheduled news conference.
Matsuno added that approximately 60 Japanese nationals are in Sudan at the moment, including personnel and staff from nongovernmental organizations, the Japanese Embassy and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
The government is in touch with all of them, and they are safe but lack food and water amid frequent electrical blackouts.
On Sunday, the government issued a statement calling for a cease-fire in the country, making use of the forum of the Group of Seven foreign ministers meeting in the town of Karuizawa, Nagano Prefecture, to urge an end to hostilities.
However, as fighting continues unabated, the government has decided to take additional steps to safeguard Japanese nationals currently in Sudan.
Earlier on Wednesday, the government established a dedicated task force for the operation. The task force is headed by the deputy chief Cabinet secretary for crisis management, who is also in charge of liaising with a separate dedicated task force under the Foreign Ministry.
Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi later asked the Defense Ministry to begin preparing to evacuate Japanese nationals from the area, Matsuno said.
The government hasn’t provided any additional details on the timing of the operation for the time being.
In Sudan, heavy gunfire shattered a 24-hour truce on Tuesday. Fighting between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has killed at least 185 people and injured more than 1,800, according to U.N. envoy Volker Perthes, amid airstrikes and fighting in Khartoum and strife across Sudan.
The last SDF mission of this type was to Afghanistan in August 2021. SDF personnel evacuated one Japanese national and 14 Afghan workers at the Japanese Embassy and other organizations.
In February 2022, a revision of the law by the administration of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida expanded the scope for which SDF personnel could be dispatched, allowing for the evacuation of foreign nationals involved in emergencies overseas even if no Japanese evacuees were involved.
SDF members were dispatched to South Sudan in 2011 as part of a United Nations peacekeeping mission.
The deployment of Ground Self-Defense Force civil engineering units as part of the U.N. mission ended in 2017, although a small number of members continue to be deployed to the mission headquarters in the capital Juba.
The government will send Self-Defense Forces personnel to evacuate Japanese citizens, the top government spokesman said in an unscheduled news conference.
Matsuno added that approximately 60 Japanese nationals are in Sudan at the moment, including personnel and staff from nongovernmental organizations, the Japanese Embassy and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
The government is in touch with all of them, and they are safe but lack food and water amid frequent electrical blackouts.
On Sunday, the government issued a statement calling for a cease-fire in the country, making use of the forum of the Group of Seven foreign ministers meeting in the town of Karuizawa, Nagano Prefecture, to urge an end to hostilities.
However, as fighting continues unabated, the government has decided to take additional steps to safeguard Japanese nationals currently in Sudan.
Earlier on Wednesday, the government established a dedicated task force for the operation. The task force is headed by the deputy chief Cabinet secretary for crisis management, who is also in charge of liaising with a separate dedicated task force under the Foreign Ministry.
Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi later asked the Defense Ministry to begin preparing to evacuate Japanese nationals from the area, Matsuno said.
The government hasn’t provided any additional details on the timing of the operation for the time being.
In Sudan, heavy gunfire shattered a 24-hour truce on Tuesday. Fighting between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has killed at least 185 people and injured more than 1,800, according to U.N. envoy Volker Perthes, amid airstrikes and fighting in Khartoum and strife across Sudan.
The last SDF mission of this type was to Afghanistan in August 2021. SDF personnel evacuated one Japanese national and 14 Afghan workers at the Japanese Embassy and other organizations.
In February 2022, a revision of the law by the administration of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida expanded the scope for which SDF personnel could be dispatched, allowing for the evacuation of foreign nationals involved in emergencies overseas even if no Japanese evacuees were involved.
SDF members were dispatched to South Sudan in 2011 as part of a United Nations peacekeeping mission.
The deployment of Ground Self-Defense Force civil engineering units as part of the U.N. mission ended in 2017, although a small number of members continue to be deployed to the mission headquarters in the capital Juba.
- April 19, 2023
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