A second frigate INS Teg joined “Operation Kaveri” to evacuate Indians from Sudan even as INS Sumedha with 278 people onboard departed Port Sudan for Jeddah on Tuesday from where they will be flown to India.
INS Teg docked at Port Sudan with additional officials and essential relief supplies for the stranded Indians after the first batch braved a 14-hour road journey from Khartoum.
The arrival of the second naval ship “will boost ongoing evacuation efforts by the Embassy Camp Office at Port Sudan”, said the MEA. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced in Kochi that Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan will leave for Jeddah to receive the evacuated Indians.
2nd naval warship joins ‘Op kaveri’
- A second frigate INS Teg joined ‘Operation Kaveri’ to evacuate Indians from war-torn Sudan
- INS Teg docked at Port Sudan with additional officials and essential relief supplies for the stranded Indians
- MoS (External Affairs) V Muraleedharan will leave for Jeddah to receive the evacuated Indians
INS Sumedha will turn around after disgorging the evacuated Indians at Jeddah for another run from Port Sudan carrying another batch of Indians. The 500 Indians who have reached Port Sudan were from Khartoum, while more Indians are making their way to the port city on their own. The MEA estimates that about 4,000 Indians are willing to be evacuated from the civil-war-hit Sudan
A large convoy of buses carrying foreigners, including Indians, had left Khartoum on Sunday morning. Though they encountered several checkpoints set up by both factions, the foreigners were allowed to pass through unmolested unlike previously when French and Qatari conveys were set upon by armed gangs.
To speed up evacuation, India is negotiating to land planes at the Port Sudan international airport which is still operational unlike the airport at Khartoum whose runway has been damaged and the apron contains disabled planes that have been shot at including a Saudia plane that included Indians as crew members. However, the three Indians were among the first batch of foreigners to be evacuated from Sudan by the Saudi authorities
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