Delhi-bound aircraft with 40 passengers onboard takes off from Jeddah

JEDDAH: An Indian Air Force C-130J aircraft with 40 passengers onboard took off from Jeddah on Sunday for New Delhi as 'Operation Kaveri' progresses further to evacuate stranded Indians from battle-torn Sudan. It was the 8th flight carrying Indian evacuees that took off from Saudi Arabia's Jeddah, since 'Operation Kaveri' began.

Taking to Twitter, the official spokesperson of MEA, Arindam Bagchi wrote, "#OperationKaveri 8th flight carrying Indian evacuees takes off from Jeddah. IAF C-130J aircraft with 40 passengers is on its way to Delhi."

The 7th flight destined for Bengaluru took off from Jeddah earlier today, with 229 passengers onboard. "#OperationKaveri bringing citizens back home. Destined for Bengaluru, 7th outbound flight carrying 229 passengers departs from Jeddah," MoS Muraleedharan tweeted.

On Saturday evening, 365 Indians from Sudan arrived in New Delhi under Operation Kaveri, while a flight carrying 231 Indian passengers reached the national capital on Saturday morning. As a ceasefire has been called in Sudan, several countries, including India, are attempting to evacuate their citizens from a conflict-ridden nation. Sudan is experiencing bloodshed due to clashes between the army and paramilitary forces.

Earlier, Indian Navy ship, INS Teg, successfully evacuated 288 stranded Indians under Operation Kaveri from the crisis-hit Sudan on Saturday. This was the 14th batch of stranded citizens headed to Jeddah to return to India.

Previously, INS Sumedha, stationed at Port Sudan, had also left the crisis-hit country with 300 passengers onboard for Jeddah. The Indian government under Operation Kaveri, is set to evacuate about 3,000 Indian-origin passengers from Sudan.

Until Friday, more than 2,400 Indians have been evacuated from Sudan, where the country is experiencing bloodshed due to clashes between the army and paramilitary forces.

The Indian evacuees shouted 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 from Sudan under Operation Kaveri.