(Ottawa) Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly says nearly 45,000 Canadians are in Lebanon, months after warning there was no guarantee Ottawa could evacuate them if the situation deteriorated further.
Mme Joly has been urging Canadians to leave the country for months. But the government has never specified how many people that includes.
Global Affairs Canada only provided the number of Canadians who proactively registered with the embassy, a figure that stood at about 21,400 people in July.
PHOTO DARRYL DYCK, CANADIAN PRESS ARCHIVES
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mélanie Joly
The minister said Friday that the government estimates that about 45,000 Canadians are actually in Lebanon.
She said she was “very concerned” by the escalation of violence in Lebanon, including deadly attacks, widely attributed to Israel, involving explosive pagers and walkie-talkies.
Global Affairs Canada has noted reports that children were killed in the attack, which reportedly targeted Hezbollah militants.