Nearly 2,000 Indians moved out safely from Sudan: Foreign Secretary

New Delhi: Nearly 1,700-2,000 Indians have safely moved out of Sudan this week, including those who have reached India and those waiting at Jeddah and Port Sudan and those on their way to Port Sudan from Khartoum and surrounding areas, foreign secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra said Thursday.

"Our effort is to get every stranded Indian out of harm's way to an area of relative safety, and from there to Port Sudan and back here," Kwatra told the media during a special briefing on the progress of Operation Kaveri.

Kwatra said external affairs minister S Jaishankar had also spoken to his counterparts from the US, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the UK and the UN secretary-general on the evacuation.
He said India had been working closely with the Saudi leadership and that the country had been extremely helpful. "We are grateful to them," he said, emphasising the support and cooperation from the country in executing the evacuation operation.

Kwatra said there had been evacuation requests from people of other nationalities as well. "We are willing to provide all assistance to everybody who approaches for such assistance," he said, adding that this, however, is subject to the fulfilment of all procedures which they need to complete as there is a transit country (Saudi Arabia) involved.

Earlier this week, Indian Navy's INS Sumedha evacuated 278 Indians from Port Sudan. This was followed by the evacuation of 121 and 135 passengers on two sorties of the IAF's C130 J. On Wednesday, 297 Indians sailed out on the INS Teg.