Second batch of 246 Indians evacuated from Sudan reaches Mumbai
The second batch of 246 Indian nationals stuck in war-torn Sudan arrived in Mumbai from Saudi Arabia’s Jeddah on Thursday.
The Indian Air Force’s C-17 Globemaster heavy lift aircraft has brought back the Indian nationals to their motherland.
External affairs minister S Jaishankar shared the images of the evacuated citizens from his Twitter handle and said, “Another #OperationKaveri flight comes to Mumbai. 246 more Indians come back to the motherland”.
On Wednesday, the first batch of 360 Indians was carried in a chartered flight and brought to Delhi.
Indian Navy is tirelessly engaged in the evacuation of Indian nationals from Sudan. Indian Navy’s INS Teg evacuated 297 Indians from Port Sudan to Jeddah on Thursday. This was the second batch to arrive by the Navy’s warships at Jeddah. The first batch of 278 Indians was brought to Jeddah by INS Sumedha on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, minister of state for external affairs V Muraleedharan is in Saudi Arabia’s Jeddah to oversee the rescue operation of the citizens. On Thursday, he informed that around 1,100 Indians have been safely evacuated from strife-torn Sudan.
He tweeted, “#OperationKaveri continues in swift pace. Happy to receive 297 Indians at Jeddah carried by INS Teg. With this second ship and total six batches, around 1,100 Indians rescued from Sudan have arrived in Jeddah. Repatriation to India of those arriving today will commence shortly”.
Over 1,700 Indian nationals have been evacuated from the conflict zones in Sudan and the government is focused to get every citizen out of the harm’s way as soon as possible, according to foreign secretary Vinay Kwatra.
A total of 495 Indians are currently in Jeddah, while another 320 are in Port Sudan. One Indian hailing from the state of Kerala has been killed in the violence so far.
India on Monday launched ‘Operation Kaveri’ to evacuate its citizens stranded in Sudan amid the intense fighting between the country’s army troops and rival paramilitary force. Two C-130J medium lift aircraft of the IAF stationed in Saudi Arabia and naval warships will make sorties across the Red Sea to take the Indians arriving in Port Sudan to Jeddah.