Egypt violence escalates, governments respond

Egypt unrest intensifiedovernight (3-Feb-2011), as governments worldwide stepped up efforts to evacuate citizens and increase warnings to avoid travel to Egypt. The following are some of the measures being taken:

• US State Department has advised all US citizens in Egypt to leave the country "immediately", following an escalation of violence between pro and anti-government factions (Trend, 03-Feb-2011);
• The US and UK governments are providing special charter flights today, but more of these flights beyond today are said to be "unlikely" (Trend, 03-Feb-2011);
• British Embassy staff are providing 24-hour assistance to nationals at Cairo International Airport's Terminals 1 and 3 where British Airways and bmi operate. bmi operated two services from Cairo on 03-Feb-2011. BA is advising all other would-be passengers to travel to Sharm-El-Sheikh and fly home from there (Trend, 03-Feb-2011);
• Japan, Canada, Turkey and Germany announced extra charter services to bring nationals home (Trend, 03-Feb-2011);
• China's Foreign Ministry said in Beijing today that almost all Chinese travellers stranded in Egypt had returned home on aircraft sent by the government (Xinhua, 03-Feb-2011). A total of 1848 Chinese, including those from Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, had been flown back to China, after the government organised eight services through four Chinese airlines;
• Pakistan has reportedly sent two chartered Pakistan International Airlines aircraft to Egypt to evacuate citizens (Xinhua, 03-Feb-2011);
• EgyptAir announced it will be operating 42 international services tomorrow on 04-Feb-2011, including 20 to Middle Eastern destinations, 20 services to Europe and one to Bangkok and New York (Arabian Aerospace, 03-Feb-2010).