ARTA (Halbeeg News) – The government of Djibouti has evacuated over 100 of its citizens from several towns in Ethiopia’s Somali regional state after a bloody weekend in Jigjiga and Dire Dawe.
Since Saturday, over 30 people including nine Djibouti nationals have been killed in clashes between Somali and Oromo people.
According to a statement by Djibouti Foreign Ministry, a chartered plane carrying the first batch of Djibouti nationals landed at Ambouli International Airport in Djibouti this morning.
They were airlifted from Dire Dawa and Jigjiga towns.
With the security situation getting worse in the troubled state in Eastern African country, Djibouti has so far evacuated about over 109 of its more than 400 citizens living in Ethiopia’s Somali regional state.
The statement said the government of Djibouti would bring home all citizens stranded in the state.
The fighting in the region over the weekend has thousands displaced.
It was unclear what sparked the clashes in Ethiopia’s second-largest region, but it appeared to start after the arrival of troops in the regional capital Jijiga.
On Saturday the US embassy said the Ethiopian military had “seized control of key highways, government buildings, and the airport in Jijiga” and warned its citizens to steer clear of the region.
Residents later told AFP mobs in the regional capital were looting banks and businesses and targeting people from outside the Somali ethnic group.
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