SUDAN: The Indian Navy on Tuesday successful evacuated the first batch of Indians stranded in conflict hit Sudan from Port Sudan. As many as 278 Indians boarded INS Sumedha heading to Jeddah.
Photos tweeted by the External Affairs Ministry spokesperson, Arindam Bagchi, showed Indians on INS Sumedha holding the national flag to express gratitude for the evacuation.
“First batch of stranded Indians leave Sudan under Operation Kaveri. INS Sumedha with 278 people onboard departs Port Sudan for Jeddah,” Bagchi said in a tweet.
Under operation Kaveri- the union government has deployed two Indian Air Force transport aircraft in Jeddah and INS Sumedha at Port Sudan.
The evacuation comes a day after the MEA announced that India had launched an operation to bring back around 3,000 Indians stranded in Sudan. External affairs minister S Jaishankar had said that around 500 citizens have already reached Port Sudan.
“Our ships and aircraft are set to bring them back home. We are committed to assisting all our brethren in Sudan,” Jaishankar had tweeted.
Sudan has been facing a conflict between the country’s army and a paramilitary forces for the last 10 days, which claimed more than 427 lives including at least 273 civilians and over 3,700 have been wounded.
The warring factions have agreed to a 72-hour ceasefire beginning from today as Western, Arab and Asian nations race to evacuate their nationals from the country. Scores of people including Sudanese and people from neighbouring countries have fled the country in the past few days to Egypt, Chad, and South Sudan.