RP sends plane to

RP sends plane to Yemen for Filipinos

MANILA (Reuter): A Philippine Air Force C-130 plane left Manila for Saudi Arabia yesterday to pick up hundreds of Filipino workers stranded in war-ravaged neighboring Yemen, officials said.

About 1,400 Filipinos are working in hotels, government hospitals and multinational companies in Yemen. Some 1,000 of them have asked to be evacuated.

Foreign Secretary Roberto Romulo said there were no reports of casualties among the Filipinos but the government has warned its nationals not to try to leave Yemen overland.

The C-130, to be based in Saudi Arabia, will airlift the stranded Filipinos from the Yemen capital Sanaa to Riyadh for repatriation aboard commercial flights.

Twenty-one Filipinos who escaped to Djibouti aboard a ship from Aden are due to arrive back in Manila today, the foreign ministry said.