In a recent update, the Indian External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar on Friday (April 28) said that an aircraft carrying nearly 400 more evacuees from the conflict-hit Sudan has landed in New Delhi. This came hours after the Indian Minister of State for External Affairs from Kerala, V Muraleedharan said that the 10th batch of evacuees from Sudan have reached Saudi Arabia’s Jeddah by the Indian Navy’s INS Tarkash.
Nearly 400 evacuees via C-17 aircraft
“Another C-17 flight carrying 392 passengers reaches New Delhi,” said Jaishankar, on Twitter, announcing the arrival of the third batch of Indians from Saudi Arabia’s port city of Jeddah, where India has set up a transit camp for the evacuees from Sudan.
The first batch of 360 evacuees was brought to the national capital in a commercial plane on Wednesday. While the second batch of 264 Indians arrived in the Indian city of Mumbai in a C-17 Globemaster aircraft the next day. So far, 998 evacuees have been brought to India, reported news agency PTI citing official data.
326 evacuees reached Jeddah by INS Tarkash
The announcement by the EAM came hours after Muraleedharan said, “Tenth batch of 326 Indian evacuees from Sudan reached Jeddah by INS TARKASH,” adding, “Happy to receive them. They will be sent back to India soon.”
This was also followed by the announcement of an Indian Navy Ship carrying 278 evacuees arriving in Jeddah late Tuesday, marking the first successful segment carried under Operation Kaveri.
Operation Kaveri aims to bring back Indian citizens who are stuck in conflict-ridden Sudan. This comes after the fighting between the Sudanese army and paramilitary, Rapid Support Forces (RSF), broke out over a week earlier. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched ‘Operation Kaveri’, named after one of the major rivers from South India, to evacuate Indians stuck in Sudan.
In line with this operation, India has been taking its citizens in buses from the Sudanese capital city of Khartoum and other conflict zones in the country to Port Sudan. Subsequently, the evacuees were taken to Jeddah via Indian Air Force’s transport aircraft and Indian Navy’s ships.
New Delhi has set up separate control rooms in Jeddah, Port Sudan, while the Indian embassy in Khartoum has been in touch with the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). So far, over 400 people have been killed and more than 3,700 were injured amid the ongoing conflict between the two warring factions in Sudan.
(With inputs from agencies)
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