Operation Kaveri: 360 Indians leave Jeddah on New Delhi-bound flight

NEW DELHI: As 'Operation Kaveri' continues, 360 Indians left Jeddah Airport on a flight bound for New Delhi and will soon be reunited with their families, the Union Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan said on Wednesday.

As the fighting between the Sudanese Army and paramilitary groups intensified in the capital Khartoum, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar informed on Monday that its 'Operation Kaveri' to evacuate its citizens from battle-torn Sudan is underway.

Operation Kaveri is a rescue operation launched by the central government to evacuate stranded Indian citizens from Sudan. "Happy to see off 360 Indians at Jeddah Airport in a flight bound for New Delhi They will be reaching the motherland soon, reuniting with their families Under #OperationKaveri the Government is working relentlessly to evacuate Indian nationals from Sudan & bring them home safely," MoS Muraleedharan tweeted.

India has deployed its military planes and warships to rescue Indians from there. Sudan is experiencing bloodshed as a result of clashes between the army and paramilitary forces. Even though there is a 72-hour ceasefire, there have been allegations of violence.

Fighting has erupted between soldiers loyal to Sudanese army leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his deputy, paramilitary Rapid Support Soldiers (RSF) commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.

The evacuation operation started in Port Sudan. Till now, an estimated 300-500 Indian citizens have been evacuated by ship and other evacuation processes are going on.

The government sources also stated that the INS Teg is stationed at Port Sudan to bring back Indians from there to Jeddah. Earlier, the INS Sumedha has already disembarked 278 Indians from there to Jeddah. INS Tarkash is in the vicinity to take part in the operations there, according to Government sources.

Now, private carriers in India are also showing their willingness to operate charter flights from India to Jeddah for evacuation. India's low-cost carrier Indigo has offered its services to the government regarding evacuation under Operation Kaveri. Previously, France Embassy in India informed that their country has evacuated some Indians along with citizens of 27 other countries as part of its evacuation mission from violence-hit Sudan.

Earlier, on Saturday, Saudi Arabia said it has evacuated 66 citizens of "brotherly and friendly" foreign countries that included a few Indian nationals from the conflict-hit nation.

The evacuation came days after Jaishankar spoke to his Saudi Arabia counterpart. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday chaired a high-level meeting to review the security situation in Sudan.