Nearly 1100 Indians Evacuated from Sudan Under Operation Kaveri: MEA

After the sixth batch of Indians was evacuated from Sudan under Operation Kaveri on Wednesday, the total count of Indian nationals rescued from the war-torn African nation stood at 1100.

“The 4th IAF C-130J flight takes off from Port Sudan for Jeddah with 128 passengers. This is the sixth batch of Indians to be evacuated from Sudan under #OperationKaveri, taking the total to nearly 1100 persons," tweeted Arindam Bagchi, Official Spokesperson, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).

Earlier on Wednesday, nearly 500 stranded Indians departed in two separate batches from Port Sudan for Jeddah.

“#OperationKaveri continues. 4th batch of stranded Indians departs from Port Sudan for Jeddah. IAF C-130J takes off with 136 passengers on board," said Bagchi.

“INS Teg departs from Port Sudan with 297 passengers. This is the fifth batch of stranded Indians enroute to Jeddah," he said in another tweet.

Under Operation Kaveri, India is looking at rescuing more of its citizens from Sudan before the end of a tenuous ceasefire between the regular army and a paramilitary force.

A C-130J military transport aircraft of the Indian Air Force brought to Jeddah 392 Indians from Port Sudan in three flights on Wednesday.

On Wednesday night the first group of evacuees arrived in New Delhi from Jeddah in a commercial aircraft.

“India welcomes back its own. #OperationKaveri brings 360 Indian Nationals to the homeland as first flight reaches New Delhi,” External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar tweeted.

On Monday, Jaishankar announced the launch of the mission ‘Operation Kaveri’ to bring back the stranded Indians from Sudan. Under its evacuation mission ‘Operation Kaveri’, India is taking the evacuees from Sudan to the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah from where they are returning home.

India has positioned two transport aircraft of the IAF in Jeddah and the naval ship INS Sumedha at Port Sudan as part of its contingency plans to evacuate the Indians.

New Delhi started evacuating Indians from Sudan both via sea and air as clashes after clashes between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) erupted in Khartoum.

Despite high-level calls for a ceasefire, clashes between the warring parties have continued as of April 24.

The death toll from the conflict continues to rise, with over 427 people killed and over 3,700 injured as of 23 April according to WHO reports.

Acute shortages of food, water, medicines and fuel and limited access to communications and electricity continue to be reported.

Several humanitarian organizations have evacuated or relocated their staff from locations where operations are not feasible currently due to insecurity.

(With PTI inputs)

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