Kenya has started evacuating its citizens from Lebanon amid growing fears of a full-blown war between Israel and Hezbollah, an Iran-backed group.
Principal Secretary, State Department for Diaspora Affairs Roseline Njogu on Wednesday confirmed that nine Kenyans have already arrived in the country.
"The first batch of Kenyans already arrived from Lebanon and evacuation is continuing as most of them continue to register," PS Njogu told the Star.
"Those who register and they are in trouble and going to be evacuated because this is a purely voluntary exercise."
The PS called on those facing challenges to ensure that they are registered so that such cases can be urgently addressed.
The State Department directed Kenyans with family members in Lebanon to call +25411475700 for ease of safety coordination.
"Anybody who has any kind of problem needs to contact us on the numbers that we have issued. Anybody with an immigration problem should contact us," she said.
According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, at least 26,599 Kenyans are in Lebanon.
Germany, US and UK are among the countries already urging their nationals to leave Lebanon amid the escalation of tensions in the Middle East.
On Tuesday, the UN said since the start of the military operation by Israel in Gaza in October 2023, nearly 200,000 people have been displaced along the “Blue Line” between southern Lebanon and northern Israel.
A further 150,000 people remain within ten kilometres of the UN-patrolled frontier in areas of south Lebanon that are impacted daily by shelling and airstrikes, Imran Riza, UN Humanitarian Coordinator in the country, told journalists in New York via video link from Beirut.
In the past week alone, 130 civilians were killed in Lebanon, including 21 paramedics and at least three journalists.
