'Operation Kaveri unfolds': Indians evacuated from Sudan reach Jeddah

An Indian Navy Ship carrying 278 passengers evacuated from conflict-ridden Sudan landed in Saudi Arabia's port city of Jeddah Tuesday late night. The INS Sumedha's docking in Jeddah marks first successful segment carried underOperation Kaveri, a rescue operation launched by New Delhi to evacuate Indians and neighbouring South Asian nationals stuck in Sudan

Operation Kaveri aims to bring back Indian citizens who are stuck in the conflict-ridden Sudan.

As INS Sumedha docked in Jeddah, India's foreign minister Dr S. Jaishankar took to Twitter to thank his Saudi Arabian counterpart Faisal bin Farhan as well as the Saudi Arabian authorities for their cooperation in India's evacuation efforts.

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday launched 'Operation Kaveri', named after one of the major rivers from South India, to bring back stranded Indians from conflict-ridden Sudan.

Later, during the wee hours of Tuesday, India's foreign minister Dr S. Jaishankar informed that the first C-130 plan landed in Jeddah with another 121 passengers. Jaishankar shared the visuals of C-130 plane landing atKing Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Shortly after, a second C-130 plane landed at Jeddah's international airport with135 evacuated passengers from Sudan.

'Operation Kaveri': Significance

The choice of naming the evacuation operation as 'Operation Kaveri' has a lot of significance.

"This is on the same lines as that the Prime Minister [Modi] chose to name the operation in Ukraine as Operation Ganga," a top source in the government was quoted as saying by New Delhi-based news agency ANI, while referring to the massive evacuation operation Indian authorities carried out when Russia launched 'special military operations' against Ukraine in February 2022.

The Kaveri river, which flows through southern states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, holds a sacred place for the people in the region.

"River reach their destination irrespective of barriers. It's like a mother who will ensue she will bring her children back to safety," the top source adds further.

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