DUSHANBE, April 3, 2015, Asia-Plus – The first 17 Tajik nationals were evacuated from Yemen today morning by planes of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations, Mohammad Egamzod, a spokesman for the Tajik Embassy in Moscow, told Asia-Plus today.

According to him, the bulk of Tajik nationals will be evacuated from Yemen by Russian aircraft tomorrow, April 4.

Meanwhile Russian news agency TASS reports the first Russian aircraft with nationals of Russia and other countries evacuated from Yemen landed at the Chkalovsky airfield in the Moscow Oblast today morning at 02:25 am.  It reportedly carried more than 160 people forced to leave Yemen due to hostilities there.  The number included 120 Russians, 15 Belarusians, 10 Poles, eight Ukrainians, three Kyrgyz, three Uzbeks, two Yemenis and one Tajik.  Among them were 15 children aged under two and 64 teenagers.

The second Russian aircraft landed at Chkalovsky airfield  in a few hours; it brought more than 130 people, including 43 Russians, 44 Uzbeks, 15 Yemenis, eight Tajiks, five Belarusians, five Azerbaijanis, three Poles, three Kyrgyz, two Ukrainians, one Canadian, one Serb, one Lithuanian and one Moldovan.  Among them are seven children aged under two and 18 teenagers.

We will recall that Abdulfayz Atoyev, a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Tajikistan, told Asia-Plus on March 31 that many Tajik medical workers working in Yemen do not want to leave the country, “because they are quite satisfied with conditions existing there.”

According to him, employees of Tajik diplomatic mission in Saudi Arabia are currently engaged in resolving issues related to relocating Tajik nationals in Yemen to safer areas before returning them home.

“The majority of our medical workers in Yemen are working in rural areas that are located far from the conflict sites,” said Atoyev.  “They told employees of our embassy by phone that they do not feel threat to their lives and health.  They are satisfied with their job and receive wage in time.  Therefore, they do not want to leave Yemen.”

Tajik diplomats together with employees of Russia medical companies for which Tajik doctors and nurses work in Yemen are making lists of Tajik nationals who want to leave Yemen.

The Tajik MFA said on March 27 that Tajik Embassy in Qatar is trying to relocate Tajik nationals in Yemen to safer areas before returning them home with the help of Russian authorities and companies.

Davron Muhammadiyev, IFRC Regional Representative in Russia, said on March 30 that some one thousand Tajik nationals – specialists and their families – are now in Yemen.

Many countries have already evacuated their citizens from Yemen.

Last week, five Gulf states, Egypt, Pakistan, Morocco and several other Sunni Muslim countries launched a series of airstrikes against the Shia Houthi rebels, who had gained control of the capital and large swathes of territory in the west of the country.

Neighboring Saudi Arabia, has taken full control of the country’s air and sea ports, purportedly to prevent the inflow of weapons from abroad. Riyadh has openly accused its regional arch-rival Iran of funding the rebels, and fomenting unrest in the country of 25 million people.