RANHILL EVACUATES 2,363 EMPLOYEES FROM LIBYA

KUALA LUMPUR, March 4 (Bernama) -- Amidst escalating political tensions in Libya, Malaysian company Ranhill Berhad (Ranhill) evacuated 2,363 of its employees based at the site of its Tajura Housing Project, located in a suburb east of Tripoli.

Chief Executive Officer of Amona Ranhill Consortium Sdn Bhd Ahmad Zakiruddin Mohamed in a statement here Thursday, said 76 Malaysian employees together with Malaysian embassy staff and other Malaysians in Libya were taken out from Tripoli in the early hours of Friday, Feb 25 and were flown to Tunis via a chartered airplane.

He said that the air evacuation to Tunis also included some of its Filipino, Indonesian, British and Thai employees who were then eventually flown out of Tunisia via commercial airlines.

The Malaysians were taken on Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) C130 aircraft to Rome the same day courtesy of the RMAF before being flown back to Malaysia in two batches on Malaysia Airlines aircraft, which arrived on Feb 28 (59 employees) and March 2 (17 employees), he added.

Ranhill has 2,652 employees of various nationalities and over 500 Libyans at the Tajura Housing Project site.