China evacuates embassy staff and medics from Juba
Two seriously wounded Chinese peacekeepers also flown out on medical rescue plane
China evacuated dozens of Chinese embassy staff and citizens from the South Sudanese capital, Juba, on the weekend as fierce fighting continued between rival forces in the city, state-run Xinhua reported on Sunday.
A delegation led by Major General Su Guanghui, acting director of the defence ministry’s Peacekeeping Affairs Office, arrived in Juba on Saturday and evacuated 17 embassy staff, 12 members of a Chinese medical team and 20 employees of various Chinese companies.
Two Chinese UN peacekeepers killed, two seriously injured in attack in South Sudan
The evacuees boarded a chartered flight that took them to Entebbe International Airport, about 40km south of the Ugandan capital Kampala, where they were greeted by China’s ambassador to Uganda, Zhao Yali.
The evacuation is part of a series of emergency measures taken by Beijing to protect its citizens amid an outbreak of fighting between the government troops of President Salva Kiir and forces loyal to Vice-President Riek Machar.
It followed the evacuation last week of more than 330 staff working for Chinese companies in South Sudan.
The workers, most of whom are employed by China Communications Construction, were helping to build an extension to Juba’s airport. They were flown to the Kenyan capital of Nairobi, where they joined 70 Chinese nationals who had been evacuated the day before.
The latest escalation in the fighting has killed almost 300 people, including the two Chinese peacekeepers.
Anarchy in South Sudan: Mass looting of aid to leave many hungry and desperate
They died when armed militants tried to break into a United Nations compound.
The soldiers, Li Lei and Yang Shupeng, were killed in an explosion after their armoured vehicle was hit by a shell while they guarded the compound, the defence ministry said. Five other Chinese peacekeepers were wounded, two seriously.
The two seriously wounded peacekeepers, Chen Ying and Huo Yahui, were flown to Beijing on Saturday aboard a military medical rescue plane.