As of Wednesday, 1100 Indian citizens have been removed from the war-torn African country of Sudan as part of Operation Kaveri's sixth round of evacuations.
“The 4th IAF C-130J flight, carrying 128 people, departs Port Sudan for Jeddah. According to Arindam Bagchi, the official spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), this is the sixth batch of Indians to be evacuated from Sudan as part of “Operation Kaveri,” bringing the total to about 1100 people.
On Wednesday morning, two different groups of approximately 500 stranded Indians left Port Sudan for Jeddah.
“#OperationKaveri is still active. The fourth group of stranded Indians leaves for Jeddah from Port Sudan. 136 people are on board the IAF C-130J as it takes flight, according to Bagchi.
“INS Teg leaves Port Sudan with 297 people on board. In a subsequent tweet, he said that this was the sixth group of stranded Indians traveling to Jeddah.
India is attempting to rescue more of its people from Sudan as part of Operation Kaveri before a shaky truce between the regular army and a paramilitary unit expires.
On three flights on Wednesday, an Indian Air Force C-130J military cargo plane transported 392 Indians from Port Sudan to Jeddah.
The first evacuation party took a commercial flight from Jeddah to New Delhi on Wednesday night.
“India welcomes her citizens back. 360 Indian citizens have returned home as part of #OperationKaveri as the first aircraft lands in New Delhi, the external affairs minister S Jaishankar tweeted.
Jaishankar declared the beginning of “Operation Kaveri” on Monday in order to rescue the trapped Indians in Sudan. India is transporting Sudanese refugees to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia as part of its evacuation effort, “Operation Kaveri,” from whence they will fly back to their country.
As part of its backup preparations to evacuate the Indians, India has stationed two IAF transport planes in Jeddah and the navy cruiser INS Sumedha in Port Sudan.
As confrontations between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) broke out in Khartoum, New Delhi began to evacuate Indians from Sudan both by water and by air.
As of April 24, fighting between the opposing sides has not stopped despite high-level pleas for it.
According to WHO figures, the conflict's death toll is still rising, with over 427 persons dead and over 3,700 wounded as of 23 April.
There are still reports of severe shortages of food, water, medication, and gasoline as well as restricted access to communications and power.
Many humanitarian groups have moved or evacuated their workers from areas where present security makes it impractical to conduct activities.
