The Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs (Menlu), Retno Marsudi, admitted that the government is having difficulty evacuating Indonesian citizens (WNI) from Gaza, Palestine even though efforts continue to be made every day.
“I make efforts to evacuate Indonesian citizens from Gaza every day. However, until now, the evacuation from the conflict area has not been successful because the situation is very difficult,” he said while in Jeddah on Wednesday (18/10/2023).
However, the Minister of Foreign Affairs emphasized that communication with Indonesian Indonesian representatives there was continuing. “The situation is still very difficult, so evacuation cannot be carried out yet. I communicate almost every day with representatives of Indonesian citizens in Gaza,” he added.
The Indonesian side also continues to establish communication with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and other parties who can assist in efforts to evacuate Indonesian citizens from Gaza.
Foreign Minister Retno emphasized that the Indonesian government had made every possible effort to evacuate Indonesian citizens safely from the conflict area between Israel and Palestine.
“I communicated again with the President of the ICRC before I arrived in Jeddah,” said the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
The Indonesian Foreign Minister suddenly left for Jeddah to attend a ministerial meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to discuss the situation in Gaza.
“My presence in Beijing had to be cut short. The President (Jokowi) ordered me to attend the OIC Extraordinary Foreign Ministers’ Meeting to discuss the increasingly deteriorating situation in Gaza,” he concluded.
Meanwhile, the Director of Protection for Indonesian Citizens at the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Judha Nugraha, previously revealed that there are 143 Indonesian citizens living in Palestine and Israel, with 10 of them in Gaza.