67 Malaysian students evacuated from Aden

Defence Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein said all of them were in good spirits except that they were tired after a 15-hour boat journey across the Red Sea.

"A Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) Hercules C130 aircraft arrived in Djibouti yesterday to fly them to Jeddah.

"From Jeddah they will be brought home on commercial flights," he told reporters after chairing a special meeting with the Rompin UMNO leadership here today.

Present were Rompin UMNO acting chief Datuk Hasan Arifin, deputy chief Datuk Seri Maznah Mazlan and secretary Wan Kadri Wan Mahusin.

However, Hishamuddin could not confirm the exact date the students will arrive in the country.

Meanwhile, he said five buses brought 179 Malaysian students from Hadramawt in Yeman to Salalah, Oman today.

He said Malaysian officers were on standby in Salalah to receive the students and arrange their flight from Salalah to Muscat, Oman, and onwards to the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA).

He said they were expected to leave Oman tonight while another batch of 45 Malaysian students already in Muscat were scheduled to arrive at KLIA at 8.50pm tonight on a Qatar Airways flight.

"It was the last group to be evacuated from Hadramawt, while a total of 131 students registered with the Malaysian embassy in Sana'a have opted to remain there (in Yemen).

"This is a decision taken by them, therefore there is nothing that we can do," said Hishamuddin.

He also said that there was a RMAF C-130 Hercules aircraft on standby in the United Arab Emirates.

He said so far, a total of 382 Malaysian students had been successfully repatriated by the Malaysian government through some commercial airlines.

According to him, all efforts to bring back Malaysian citizens and students would not be an easy task without the help of other countries that had close relations with Malaysia.

"In fact, we also helped to bring out students and citizens of Indonesia and Thailand and this shows that in difficult situations, solidarity and cooperation among ASEAN countries is very strong," he said.