As it deployed its third naval ship INS Tarkash for evacuation operations being carried out in Sudan, India today acknowledged that the situation in the strife-torn nation was very complex and highly volatile and it was making all-out efforts to ensure the safety of Indian nationals stranded there.

Giving details at a media briefing about the progress of ”Operation Kaveri” launched by India to evacuate its nationals from Sudan, Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra said: ”I am informed that the third ship, INS Tarkash, has also reached Port Sudan today as part of our efforts.”

He said: “Two naval ships have also been positioned as part of the Government of India’s efforts. INS Sumedha was the first one to dock, took up, picked up roughly 300 odd Indians yesterday, brought them to Port Jeddah, and is today back in Port Sudan to fetch the next group of Indians and bring them to safe harbours.”

Kwatra said that the government was in constant touch with the stranded Indians in Sudan and had set up control rooms in India as well as in Sudan. “PM Narendra Modi addressed a high-level meeting in which he personally reviewed and directed the officials of the Government of India to take suitable measures to assist and bring back these stranded Indians,” he added.

“As part of our efforts, two C-130 aircraft of the Indian Air Force have been mobilised and are constantly positioned in Jeddah, and have been there since April 19. We have also set up a control room in Jeddah and a control room in Port Sudan. So we have two control rooms working along with our embassy. So there’s a full triangulation of efforts between the control room in Jeddah through our consulate and mission in Riyadh, through the control room team in Port Sudan, which is the north-eastern coast of Sudan, and our embassy in Khartoum City,” the Indian diplomat said.

About the situation in Sudan, he said ceasefires had been declared several times by the warring groups but on many occasions, they were not honoured. ”There has been feedback of sporadic firing going on. The situation on the ground remains highly volatile,” Kwatra said.

In response to a question on the number of Indians in Sudan, he said “Our estimate is that approximately there are 3500 Indians. More specifically, I think 3000-odd have already registered online. And roughly an additional 300 are in touch with the mission. The Government of India’s focus in this entire effort has been to advise and assist the standard Indian nationals.”

Kwatra said External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar also reached out to the foreign ministers of other key partners whose nationals were stuck in Sudan. He said the government was ready to evacuate nationals of other countries which have sought India’s assistance in rescuing their nationals.