Saudi Arabia opens border to Egyptians fleeing Yemen

CAIRO

Saudi Arabia has agreed to open three crossings on its border with Yemen to allow Egyptians fleeing violence in the crisis-hit country to enter Saudi territory, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said Thursday.

It added in a statement that crossings on Oman's border with Yemen would likewise be opened for Egyptian nationals fleeing Yemen.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Badr Abdel-Ati said Egypt was working with its "sister countries" to evacuate its nationals from Yemen by air and by sea.

On Wednesday, Egypt began evacuating its nationals from crisis-hit Yemen, where an Arab coalition is waging a military offensive against the Shiite Houthi militant group.

In a statement, the Foreign Ministry said that groups of Egyptian nationals had already been evacuated by sea from Yemen to neighboring countries.

"Efforts are underway to evacuate a group of Egyptians via a border crossing with Saudi Arabia," the ministry said.

According to the statement, a number of Egyptians have already left Yemen via a border crossing with Oman.

There is no specific figure for the number of Egyptians in Yemen.

However, some recent reports put the number of Egyptians working in the war-torn country at some 18,000.

For the past week, Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies have pounded Houthi positions across Yemen.

Riyadh says the strikes are in response to appeals by embattled Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi to "save the [Yemeni] people from the Houthi militias."

Fractious Yemen has remained in turmoil since last September, when the Houthis overran capital Sanaa, from which they have sought to extend their influence to other parts of the country.

Some Gulf States accuse Shiite Iran of supporting Yemen's Houthi insurgency.