‘Operation Kaveri’: IAF evacuates 1,400 Indians from Sudan. One aged 102 years

The Indian Air Force (IAF) alone has brought back around 1,400 Indian citizens from war-hit Sudan over the past few days, ever since India began ‘Operation Kaveri’ last week.

The IAF informed that two C-130 J aircraft have evacuated 260 personnel including elders who were above 90 years of age. Out of the passengers, one was above 102 years of age, it added.

Earlier in the day, a total of 186 Indians from Sudan arrived in Kochi under Operation Kaveri – which had department from Jeddah on Sunday. “#OperationKaveri continues to bring Indians back home. Flight carrying 186 passengers touches down in Kochi,” Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) official spokesperson Arindam Bagchi tweeted.

According to officials, the Indian government is going to evacuate around 3,000 Indian-origin passengers from Sudan. So far, around 2,500 citizens have been brought back to the country.

As per the website of the Indian embassy in Khartoum, there were around 2,800 Indian nationals in Sudan. Along with this, there is also a settled Indian community of around 1,200 people which has been in the country for nearly 150 years.

Apart from IAF aircrafts, IndiGo is also operating two flights from Saudi Arabia’s Jeddah to Delhi and Bengaluru respectively as a part of Operation Kaveri.

Violence has paralysed the Sudanese city after fighting erupted between soldiers loyal to Sudanese army leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his deputy, paramilitary Rapid Support Soldiers (RSF) commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo. According to reports, at least 528 people have been killed in the violence so far, and 4,599 have been wounded.