New Delhi: The first batch of Indians will be evacuated by an Indian naval ship on Wednesday morning from Port Sudan, where hundreds of Indians have already reached the coastal city after a tense 14-hour journey from the Sudanese capital racked by civil war.
External affairs minister S. Jaishankar announced on Monday evening that around 500 Indians have reached the port, with “more on their way”.
He also revealed that the official rescue operation has been named after Kaveri, a major river that starts flowing from the state of Karnataka. The last emergency evacuation that took place at the start of the Ukraine war was named after Ganga, which means that a riverine nomenclature is not out of place.
Operation Kaveri gets underway to bring back our citizens stranded in Sudan.
About 500 Indians have reached Port Sudan. More on their way.
Our ships and aircraft are set to bring them back home.
Committed to assist all our bretheren in Sudan. pic.twitter.com/8EOoDfhlbZ
— Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) April 24, 2023
However, the minister also clashed with Congress Karnataka leader Siddaramaiah on Twitter, when the latter had asked for arrangements for the urgent return of members of a semi-nomadic tribe who were stranded in Sudan. He told Siddaramaiah to not do politics over the rescue operation. Karnataka will be going to polls to elect a new state assembly on May 10.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced at a rally in Kochi that minister of state for external affairs V. Muraleedharan, “a son of Kerala and a minister of my government”, will be going to the Saudi port of Jeddah to receive the evacuated Indians. The PM’s roadshow marks the start of BJP’s campaign for the 2024 general elections in Kerala, as per local media reports.
Since the start of the fighting on April 14, foreign governments have been attempting to remove their citizens from the Sudanese capital Khartoum. The violence broke out between the Sudanese army and a powerful paramilitary group, headed by two rival army commanders who have been ruling the North African state since 2019.
On Sunday morning, convoys of buses started to leave Khartoum city carrying expatriates of various nationalities, which included a large contingent of Indians.
The most intense fighting was within the city limits of Khartoum, so the one-hour journey through the capital was precarious amidst the sounds of gunfire and bombing.
Usually, the journey from Khartoum to Port Sudan is around 12 hours, but it stretched to around 14 hours with the route interrupted by numerous check posts set up by the two warring sides. According to an Indian national in Sudan, the personnel manning the check posts were not looking out for foreign nationals. “If they saw that the passport is of foreigners, they let them go,” said Ramesh Radhakrishnan, an Indian national working with Sudan’s largest industrial group.
After reaching Port Sudan, the Indian nationals were accommodated in a school in the city. They are scheduled to board INS Sumedha at around 5 am local time to travel to Jeddah, a journey of around 12 hours. The ship will then come back for the next batch of Indian nationals.
So far, the port city has been relatively unscathed from the intense violence and has been the focus of most evacuation plans by foreign governments.
It was necessary to convey nationals away from Khartoum towards the coast, since the international airport was not only closed but the runway is also reported to have been damaged.
Saudi Arabia had been the first foreign nation to send warships to Port Sudan to take back their nationals. Three Indians, who had been part of the crew of a Saudi airline whose plane was shot at Khartoum international airport, were also evacuated. Five Indians were also among the 300-odd people evacuated by France.
While around 500 Indians reached Port Sudan from Khartoum, others from neighbouring areas were also reaching the port city with their own resources.
As per sources, India was also seeking permission to land planes in Port Sudan international airport to speed up the evacuation process. Currently, the entire Sudanese airspace has been closed, but some foreign countries like France managed to get their plane stationed at Djibouti to land in Khartoum.
According to Radhakrishnan, the staff at the Indian embassy in Khartoum had been heroic in their efforts to not only marshal an evacuation plan in a conflict zone, but also to ensure that underprivileged Indians had adequate food and water.
While multiple Whatsapp groups had been set up earlier, internet connections, both broadband and mobile, have been lost for nearly two nights. In place, the coordinators are trying to send information to around 5000 Indian nationals by phone.
The Indian embassy not only has to coordinate the transportation of around 4000-5000 Indian nationals, but they have to also furnish fresh travel documents to a substantial number of citizens.
Radhakrishnan had given his passport for renewal to the Indian embassy just two days before the fighting began. Once the violence started, the embassy became inaccessible as it was right in the middle of the most intense battles. As the violence began on a weekend, many people were unable to go to their workplaces as their passports were with their employers.
The Indian embassy sent some officials in the first buses to Port Sudan to set up camp to arrange travel documents and passports.