Japan urges its citizens to leave Ethiopia amid mounting tensions

The Japanese government has called on its citizens in Ethiopia to leave amid arising military tensions.

Japan Foreign Minister, Yoshimasa Hayashi sounded the warning in a statement, where he also admitted that there had been no reports about Japanese casualties so far.

“It is true that Japan has sent experts from the Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Defense to assess the situation in Ethiopia and collect data.

“Currently, commercial flights continue to fly. We urge Japanese citizens to leave this country,” Hayashi said.

He said to date, no data about “physical damage” inflicted on Japanese nationals in Ethiopia had been confirmed.

Ethiopia is currently facing an outbreak of violence linked to the advance of Tigray People’s Liberation Front rebels, who have been in a military conflict with the central government since 2020, toward the capital of Addis Ababa.

The situation prompted several countries to start evacuating their diplomatic missions from Ethiopia, while the government declared a six-month state of emergency in November.