With the situation in the strife-torn Sudan continuing to deteriorate, another flight carrying 231 Indian nationals evacuated from the African country reached New Delhi today.
As they disembarked from the special flight, the Indian evacuees chanted slogans like “Bharat Mata ki jai,” and “Vande Mataram” and also lauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar for rescuing them under ”Operation Kaveri”.
One of the Indian passengers spoke about the worsening situation in Sudan, triggering a humanitarian crisis. “It has become very difficult to stay in Sudan due to the ongoing conflict. There is a shortage of food and drinking water, moreover, there are continuous bombings, and rockets are being fired. None of us were coming out of our houses. The food canteen was bombed. It is very difficult to flee also, travelling in the vehicle is also not safe, they can bomb buses too,” he said.
”Operation Kaveri moves further. 231 Indians reach home safely as another flight reaches New Delhi,” tweeted the Indian foreign minister, who is currently on a foreign tour.
According to Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan, nearly 2,100 Indians have arrived in Jeddah from Sudan so far as part of ‘Operation Kaveri’.
Sudan is witnessing bloodshed as a result of the power struggle between the Army and paramilitary forces.
To further boost ”Operation Kaveri”, Indian carrier IndiGo has joined the mission. “Indigo joins #OperationKaveri. 231 Indians on a flight to New Delhi from Jeddah. With this 5th outbound flight, around 1600 reached or were airborne for India. Happy journey. Our Mission continues,” Muraleedharan tweeted.
“We have offered our services for charter flights to Jeddah under the Indian Government’s Operation Kaveri rescue mission of our citizens from Sudan. We are still awaiting details from the ministry to launch these flights, nothing has been confirmed as of yet,” IndiGo Airlines said in a statement.