Japanese aid workers were evacuated from South Sudan to Nairobi aboard a chartered aircraft on Wednesday after a surge of violence in the country, an official of the Japanese Embassy in Nairobi said.

Forty-seven Japanese nationals arrived in the Kenyan capital aboard the plane on Wednesday afternoon after leaving Juba, the Foreign Ministry said in Tokyo. A ministry official said all those working on Japan International Cooperation Agency programs have now left South Sudan.

"I am relieved that everyone was able to evacuate safely," Mitsuaki Furukawa, head of JICA's South Sudan office, said at an airport in Nairobi.

The ministry said around 20 Japanese nationals, including embassy officials and personnel with international organizations, remain in South Sudan.

The plane is also believed to have also transported some non-Japanese nationals involved in Japanese aid programs. The Foreign Ministry said a total of 93 people involved in the aid programs reached Nairobi.

The government has dispatched several Air Self-Defense Force C-130 aircraft to potentially transport evacuees. The planes arrived in Djibouti late Wednesday.

Japan's Defense Ministry will assess the situation on the ground in South Sudan before deciding whether to send in the C-130s to bring out the remaining Japanese.

Juba has been gripped by violence since gun battles erupted last Thursday. Fighting between soldiers loyal to President Salva Kiir and supporters of Vice President Riek Machar, a former rebel leader, has reportedly left hundreds of people dead, including two Chinese U.N. peacekeepers.

The situation is reported to have eased since the two leaders ordered a cessation of hostilities earlier this week.