LOGIN

India stood by us during crisis, says Sudan Ambassador Eltom

Sidhant Sibal
Written By Sidhant Sibal
Published: Apr 17, 2025, 03:47 IST | Updated: Apr 17, 2025, 03:47 IST
India stood by us during crisis, says Sudan Ambassador Eltom

Story highlights

World | The India-Sudan relationship is very deep and rooted back in history. The relationship goes back, actually, since the independence of Sudan in 1956

The Sudanese Ambassador to India, Mohammed Abdullah Ali Eltom, has thanked India for standing by the country amid the conflict and providing it with much-needed humanitarian assistance. During an exclusive interview with WION's Sidhant Sibal, Eltom said that India will soon send a consignment of artificial limbs (prosthetics) to the country, and recalled how, when the conflict broke in 2023, medical assistance was sent. This month marks two years of the conflict in the country that has devastated it and created a major humanitarian crisis. Key comments from the interview:

"The India-Sudan relationship is very deep and rooted back in history. The two countries actually enjoy an excellent relationship. It goes back, actually, since the independence of Sudan in 1956"

"We believe that there is a huge potential for the bilateral relationship between Sudan and India. After the advances the army is making in Sudan, recapturing all the areas which had been under the control of the militia before. Things are coming back to normalcy, but this needs a lot of effort for reconstruction for the restoration of services. And this also represents a good opportunity for the relationship with India. The relationship is promising with more development and more advancement as things are coming back to normalcy gradually in the country".

India and Sudan have a long history of relationship. India opened diplomatic representation in Khartoum in March 1955. In fact, the first Sudanese Parliamentary elections in 1953 were conducted by the then Chief Election Commissioner of India, Sukumar Sen. 

"The Indian Sudanese community is a large community in Sudan. They have settled in Sudan for a very long time. Immediately after this war, this campaign of terror unleashed by the militia, started in 2023, the Indian government actually reached out to the Sudanese government seeking, actually cooperation in evacuating the community. There are thousands of Indian Sudanese members of this community, the two governments actually cooperated to evacuate this community from Sudan".

India evacuated its nationals from the country in April 2023 after the outbreak of war under Operation Kaveri. Evacuations were primarily conducted via air and sea from Port Sudan, with Jeddah serving as a transit hub. During the evacuation, 181 members of the Hakki Pikki tribe from Karnataka were taken out as well. 

"India actually stood by Sudan in this crisis. Immediately after the outbreak of this war, India actually sent humanitarian assistance, 25 tons of medicines, by a Special Air Force flight. That was only one month after the war broke out in Sudan, and then that was followed by another shipment of medicines that was just received last month in Port Sudan. These are medicines for the treatment of cancer. We are also expected to receive a number of hemodialysis machines that are actually used for the treatment of kidney failure patients" 

"India's humanitarian assistance, coming from the Indian government, as well as a considerable number of artificial limbs will be sent along with a team from India to Port Sudan to assist in these operations. India has actually stood on our side in this crisis". 

"India is the number one exporter of medicines to Sudan. The biggest volume of imports of medicines come from India to Sudan. So India is a very important source of medicine, a very important destination for medical treatment. I mean, for the whole health sector, India is very important. Indian hospitals definitely can have a good market there in Sudan, 80% of the hospitals now have gone out of service because of the attacks by this militia".

India is seen as the pharma capital of the world, and patients from many countries of the global south have been coming to India for reliable and affordable medical support.

"We very much appreciate that the most important thing as well is the Indian Embassy. India decided to keep its embassy open and running in Port Sudan, despite the difficult circumstances there in Sudan. But the government of India was amongst those countries which insisted in keeping their embassy open in Port Sudan, and this has been very important to us, even as Sudanese, because this embassy now is issuing visas to the patients who come to India for medical treatment"

"India is now the number one destination for medical treatments for Sudanese patients. So the Indian Embassy in Port Sudan is doing a great job now, actually facilitating this process to the Sudanese patients. Very much appreciate all these steps taken by the Indian government".

The Indian Embassy in Sudan is currently operating from Port Sudan. The embassy was relocated from Khartoum in 2023 after the outbreak of the conflict.

"Thanks to the cooperation we are finding here from the Ministry of External Affairs, they are very supportive. We started the process, and now the Indian Embassy in Port Sudan is engaged, actually, with the health authorities there to work out the details. This is going to be a camp with experts going from here, along with a considerable number of limbs, and they will do the operations there in Port Sudan. The preparations are done jointly by the embassy, Indian embassies there, and the Minister of Health in Port Sudan"

"We thank India for this support. We look forward to engaging with the Indian side on more kinds of projects, not only humanitarian. For example, we believe that we may invite some Indian companies to go and start actually manufacturing these kind of things in Sudan, whether it's artificial limbs, whether it's medicines"

India has in the past sent prosthetic limbs to several countries, including Syria, Iraq. 

Watch: United Nations calls on international community to act in South Sudan

"This militia has unleashed a campaign of destruction, of terror, of looting. Since April 2023, they have spared nobody. This militia spared no diplomatic premises, no civilian facility, whether it's a hospital, whether it is private house"

"Scale and the magnitude of the barbarism and ruthlessness that have been exposed by this militia is unprecedented in the history of Sudan. Since they started this campaign of terror. They committed massacres against all sorts of civilians. Genocide has been committed against specific ethnic groups, and this has actually been proved by the reports of the United Nations"

It has been two years since the conflict in the country started, which has displaced over 14.6 million people. The Sudanese people, particularly women and children, have been the worst impacted by the conflict.