NEW DELHI: An operation to evacuate Indian citizens from violence-hit Sudan has been launched by India. The rescue operation to evacuate India’s citizens has been named Operation Kaveri.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar took to Twitter to say that Operation Kaveri is underway and about 500 Indians have reached Port Sudan on Monday for evacuation from strife- torn Sudan.
Jaishankar tweeted, "Operation Kaveri gets underway to bring back our citizens stranded in Sudan. About 500 Indians have reached Port Sudan. More on their way. Our ships and aircraft are set to bring them back home. Committed to assist all our bretheren in Sudan.”
Operation Kaveri is the latest of a host of evacuation operations India has conducted over the years to rescue Indians as well as citizens of friendly nations from Afghanistan, Ukraine and other war zones.
A day after the Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement that two C-130s aircraft and the navy ship INS Sumedha are on standby to safely evacuate stranded Indians, the evacuation operation was launched. The number of Indians in Sudan is around 4,000, according to the official data,.
The operation was also launched days after S Jaishankar held talks with his counterparts in Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Both countries had assured their "practical support on the ground" to India.
A deadly power struggle In Sudan between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) is raging across the country. The violence started after disagreement over an internationally backed plan for formation of a new civilian government, two years after the military coup and four years after the fall of autocrat Omar al-Bashir. One side accuses the other of disallowing the transition.
Meanwhile, Diplomats of several Western countries like the US, UK, Sweden and France were evacuated by their governments in the past several hours. The hope for a ceasefire by the stakeholders to coincide with the three-day Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr did not materialize.
Over 420 people have been killed and over 3,700 wounded in fighting between the Sudanese armed forces and the powerful paramilitary group known as the Rapid Support Forces, according to a report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
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