UPDATE: Japan evacuates 45 nationals from Sudan, closes embassy

Japan has evacuated 45 nationals and their spouses from Sudan, and temporarily closed its embassy, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and officials said Tuesday.

“A total of 45 people took off from eastern Sudan for Djibouti in the C2 transport aircraft dispatched” by Japanese troops, Kishida told reporters in the early hours of Tuesday.

He said four other Japanese had also been able to move from Sudan to Djibouti and Ethiopia with help from France and international organisations.

A few hours later, Japan’s foreign minister said in a statement that the embassy was now temporarily closed after staff were evacuated.

Japan had said it had roughly 60 citizens in Sudan when it decided to evacuate them from chaos-torn Sudan.

The foreign ministry will set up a liaison office in Djibouti to continue helping remaining Japanese in Sudan to evacuate, it said.