UN to evacuate staff from Egypt

[February 03, 2011]  CAIRO (AP) -- The United Nations moved Thursday to evacuate much of its staff in Egypt, while about 5,000 passengers besieged Cairo airport a day after the protests that have gripped the Egyptian capital degenerated into a bloody street brawl.

The U.N. was sending in two chartered aircraft to take 350 staff and their families to Cyprus, said Rolando Gomez, a spokesman for its peacekeeping mission on the Mediterranean island. Each aircraft was to make two roundtrips to Cyprus.

"The staff will be temporarily relocated due to the security situation in Egypt," Gomez told The Associated Press, adding that arrangements had been made to accommodate up to 600 staff and their families at hotels in Cyprus. It was unclear whether they would remain on the island or head to other destinations.

Gomez said some U.N. staff will remain in Egypt to carry out "essential functions."

The United States said more than 1,900 Americans had been evacuated in three days of flights, and additional flights were planned for Thursday. The State Department said that even citizens whose passports had expired within the past decade could go directly to the airport, reflecting the urgency of evacuating people even if their travel documents were not in order.

About 160 Americans were at the airport early Thursday. In total, about 5,000 passengers of various nationalities were there, waiting for commercial or government-chartered flights.

The congestion that had transformed the airport into a chaotic camp eased by Wednesday. But it remained unclear if the violence that day would spur a new exodus, or if most had already been evacuated or been able to board the commercial flights.

About 40 flights were expected to leave, including charter flights, compared to over 90 on Wednesday, airport officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.

EgyptAir, the national carrier, was still flying just a fraction of its normal flights. On Thursday, 26 international flights and 17 domestic flights were scheduled, an increase from previous days that appeared to come as the government eased the curfew.

The unrest that has gripped the country since Jan. 25 is battering the tourism sector. Travel companies have reported cancellations of trips as far forward as April -- dealing a major blow to a country where tourism brought in close to $11 billion in revenues in the first ten months of 2010.

It was also hitting tour companies. European tour operator TUI said the unrest in Egypt and Tunisia -- where an uprising weeks earlier led to the ouster of that country's president -- could cost it up to 30 million pounds ($48.5 million). Most of the losses are expected to come from the Egypt operation.

Cairo's international appeal had been based not just on its famed museums and monuments, but also its relative safety compared to other major cities worldwide. For now, that perception has been shattered.

Airport officials said five Egyptians were detained Thursday for carrying weapons in their luggage. The five men were coming from Kenya and had stashed knives and whips in their baggage, apparently to defend themselves with upon their arrival in the capital, the officials said.

[Associated Press; By TAREK EL-TABLAWY and MENELAOS HADJICOSTIS]

Hadjicostis reported from Nicosia, Cyprus.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.