Another flight carrying 231 Indian passengers evacuated from conflict-torn Sudan reached New Delhi on April 29.
The Indian evacuees shouted slogans like ‘Bharat Mata ki jai’, and ‘Vande Mataram’ and also lauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister Dr. S Jaishankar for rescuing them from Sudan under Operation Kaveri.
One of the Indian passengers shared the tough humanitarian crisis faced by them in Sudan.
“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,” said an Indian electrician from Buxar, Bihar evacuated from Sudan.
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He lauded Operation Kaveri and said that his evacuation from Sudan was like “re-birth” as he had lost hope to survive.
He also praised the Indian Army which aided their safe transit from Port Sudan to Jeddah. “When I saw them at Port Jeddah, we felt secure and knew that we will reach India alive. Jai Hind, Jai Bharat,” he added.
Meanwhile, a little girl named Aiysha evacuated from Sudan also shared her experience and thanked the Indian Government.
231 Indian reach home safely as another flight reaches New Delhi, tweeted EAM Jaishankar.
“I have been staying in Sudan for the last 15 years. This is the first time we faced such a dire situation. It was very scary, they launched a rocket at my house. We requested Indian Embassy to evacuate us. They helped us and we went to Port Sudan and Indian Navy carried us safely. Navy officers were very helpful. When we reached Jeddah, we got good air service. Indian Government supported us in the time of the need, we are very happy and thankful to the government,” said Mohammed Iqbal Hussain, project engineer in a pharmaceutical company in Sudan.
Meanwhile, the Indian Air Force (IAF) and Garud Commandos carried out a daring, overnight operation to air-lift stranded Indians despite the airstrip in Sudan’s Wadi Seidna having no navigational approach, aids or fuel, and landing lights (that are required to guide an aircraft landing at night).
On the night of April 27, 28, 2023, the IAF C-130J aircraft rescued 121 personnel from a small airstrip at Wadi Seidna, which is about 40 km North of Khartoum, Sudan, the IAF said in a statement.
Mr. Hussain said that situation in Sudan is not going to normalise soon. “It will take very long and now Khartoum is finished, they are going back 20 years. They cannot reconstruct like that, bearing heavy losses,” he added.
On Friday, MoS for External Affairs V. Muraleedharan informed that so far, 2,100 Indians have arrived in Jeddah, as part of ‘Operation Kaveri’.
