Approximately 3,500 Indians in conflict-torn Sudan, New Delhi monitoring situation: Foreign Secretary Kwatra
Operation Kaveri
Indian Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra said on Thursday (April 27) that there are approximately 3,500 Indians and 1,000 Persons of Indian Origin (PIO) in Sudan, adding that New Delhi is constantly monitoring the situation in the conflict-torn country. Addressing a press conference, Foreign Secretary Kwatra said, "Our estimate is that there are approximately 3500 Indians & 1000 PIOs in Sudan."
"As we speak, we have a situation that roughly 600 Indian nationals have either arrived in India or are on their way. So, 360 of them arrived on a Saudi Arabia flight yesterday night. Another 246 (Indian nationals) are being flown to Maharashtra. Approximately, 495 Indian nationals were in Jeddah as of now. These numbers will either go up or come down depending upon the evacuations," Kwatra added.
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The foreign secretary also said that India received requests for the evacuation of citizens of other countries from Sudan, adding this is subject to the fulfilment of the procedures.
The Indian government has launched "Operation Kaveri" to bring back Indians stranded in Sudan. On Wednesday night, the first aircraft carrying 360 Indians to Saudi Arabia from Sudan took off from Jeddah Airport and arrived in New Delhi. Taking to Twitter, External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar said, "India welcomes back its own. Operation Kaveri brings 360 Indian Nationals to the homeland as first flight reaches New Delhi."
And on Thursday, Union Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan said that as many as 128 Indians arrived in Saudi Arabia'sJeddah.
"Another IAF C-130J flight under #OperationKaveri arrived at Jeddah with 128 Indians, the fourth aircraft from Sudan. Efforts are on to ensure that all Indians, who arrived in Jeddah will be sent to India at the earliest," Muraleedharan tweeted.
Earlier, MEA spokesperson Arindam Baghchi tweeted that nearly 1,100 Indians were evacuated from Sudan.
The North African country has been in conflict since April 15 after fighting broke out between the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Sudan is under a 72-hour ceasefire which started on Tuesday.
Sudan army approves extension of ceasefire
On Wednesday, Sudan army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan gave initial approval to a plan to extend the ceasefire for another 72 hours and sent an army envoy to Juba for talks, the news agency Reuters reported early Thursday. There was no immediate response from the RSF to the proposal.
Also on Wednesday- the second day of the initial agreed ceasefire- witnesses reported heavy air strikes in East Nile. Speaking to the news agency AFP, the witnesses said that warplanes flew over the northern suburbs of Khartoum, drawing heavy anti-aircraft fire from the paramilitaries.
In southern Khartoum, machinegun fire was reported near one of the homes owned by paramilitary commander Mohamed Hamdan, who is leading the RSF against the armed forces.
(With inputs from agencies)
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